Maryna Viazovska | |
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At Oberwolfach, 2013
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Born | 1984 (age 32–33) |
Residence | Germany |
Citizenship | Ukrainian |
Fields | Mathematics |
Institutions |
Berlin Mathematical School Humboldt University of Berlin École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne |
Thesis | Modular Functions and Special Cycles (2013) |
Doctoral advisor | Don Zagier |
Known for | Sphere-packing problem |
Notable awards | Salem Prize (2016) |
Website www |
Maryna Sergiivna Viazovska (Ukrainian: Марина Сергіївна В'язовська; born 1984) is a Ukrainian mathematician who in 2016 solved the sphere-packing problem in dimension 8 and, in collaboration with others, in dimension 24. Previously, the problem had been solved only for three or fewer dimensions, and the proof of the three-dimensional version (the Kepler conjecture) involved long computer calculations. In contrast, Viazovska's proof for 8 and 24 dimensions is "stunningly simple".
As a student at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Viazovska competed at the International Mathematics Competition for University Students in 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005, and was one of the first-place winners in 2002 and 2005. Viazovska earned a candidate degree from the Institute of Mathematics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in 2010, and a doctorate (Dr. rer. nat.) from the University of Bonn in 2013. Her doctoral dissertation, Modular Functions and Special Cycles, concerns analytic number theory and was supervised by Don Zagier. She was a postdoctoral researcher at the Berlin Mathematical School and the Humboldt University of Berlin. In December 2016, she was named as Tenure Track Assistant Professor at EPFL.