Maryna Viazovska, a 38-year-old Ukrainian mathematician and sphere-packing specialist who teaches at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, became the second woman to receive the Fields Medal, in 2022.
The opening questions focus mainly on her personal relationship with mathematics: how her interest in the subject began, the emotions mathematics arouses in her, its connection with imagination, and when she decided to become a mathematician…
She was then asked to draw on her experience to offer advice to those who are unfamiliar with mathematics and have negative perceptions of it: anxiety, doubts about its usefulness, and fear of making mistakes.
The interview closes, as one might expect, with what winning the Fields Medal has meant for her personally and professionally. Her conclusion: "I see absolutely no reason why there should be fewer girls than boys doing mathematics."
The CultureMath website: **Culturemath.ens.fr**
