Iran Launches ‘Simorgh’ Supercomputer, Will Build Another in Memory of Mirzakhani

Azari Jahromi made the remarks in a tweet on Sunday, when the country launched a homegrown supercomputer named “Simorgh”, which is a benevolent, mythical bird of prey in Iranian mythology and literature.

In his tweet, the ICT minister vowed that the next supercomputer, whose development began today, will be named “Maryam” in memory of Mirzakhani.

He said the capacity of “Maryam” will be 100 times more than Simorgh.

Maryam Mirzakhani, the internationally-renowned Iranian mathematician and the first female winner of Fields Medal, died of breast cancer in July 2017.

The 40-year-old mathematician, a professor at Stanford University, was the first Iranian woman elected to the US National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in May 2016, in recognition of her “distinguished and continuing achievement in original research.”

With past honourees, including renowned physicist Albert Einstein, and inventors Thomas Edison, and Alexander Graham Bell, being a member of the organization is considered to be as one of the highest achievements for scientists in the United States.

Born in 1977 in Tehran, Mirzakhani was raised in the Iranian capital. As a brilliant teenager, she won gold medals in both the International Mathematical Olympiad (Hong Kong 1994), in which she scored 41 out of 42 points, and the International Mathematical Olympiad (Canada 1995) with a perfect score of 42 out of 42 points, ranking her first jointly with 14 other participants.