2022 Fields Medal Winners: Maryna Viazovska

2022 Fields Medal Winners: Maryna Viazovska
”Peaceful is always what I took for granted”

Ukrainian Maryna Viazovska became a 2022 Fields Medal winner just as her country was ripped apart by conflict. ‘I could not think about anything else,’ she says, ‘including mathematics.’

Viazovska’s landmark contributions to the geometric field of sphere packing rose in global prominence as her sister, niece and nephew joined Viazovska’s family in safety in Switzerland. Yet the battles’ toll could not be outrun. She asked herself, ‘When young people die, you will think, “Okay, so what’s the point of my work as a teacher if young, talented people are just wasted in this terrible war?”’

One in a series. See more of the project here. 

Filmed by Ariel Salati. Written and produced by John Hubbell. Edited by Alessandro Santillo and Ivan Pilato of Fiumi Studios. Elettra Fiumi, co-producer. Danielle Lopez-Cecetiate, assistant producer. Field audio by Jonathan Stilo. Illustration written and supervised by Kolin Pope of Chicago Winter Co. Illustration by Caresse Haaser. Music by Jonathan Kirkscey. Philip Yam, Executive Producer. 

Clients: International Mathematical Union, Simons Foundation