Although her research is not readily accessible to the general public (see Tangente 162, 2015), her extraordinary life—and above all her drive, passionate enthusiasm and unassuming nature—deserve wider recognition.
The comic book Under the sign of Torus (a play on the torus, an iconic object in Maryam Mirzakhani’s field of research, and Taurus, her zodiac sign) does this skilfully. Created by two Italian authors—Davide La Rosa, who wrote the script, and Silvia Ziche, who drew the artwork—the story explores the mathematician’s life, personality and geometric world. The English-language volume also includes articles explaining the power of Mirzakhani’s "magic wand" and fascinating interviews with the authors and women mathematicians such as Ingrid Daubechies. It closes with a moving open letter from a very young art student who was struck by the comic and by the creative dimension of the Iranian mathematician’s work.
