Caucher Birkar, ne hêsane ti kurd bî,Its not easy to be a Kurd

Now a researcher at Cambridge University, Birkar was born in 1978 in the Kurdish province of Marivan on the Iran/Iraq border. He follows in the centuries old footsteps of great mathematicians from the same region, Omar Khayyam (1048-1131) and Sharaf al-Din al-Tusi (1135-1213).

“It’s not easy to be a Kurd,” he explains. “We have a saying: The Kurdish have no friends but the mountainside. I am hoping this news will put a little smile on the lips of those 40 million people.”

Growing up in rural Iran, Birkar was taught mathematics by his elder brother. “My parents are farmers, my success in math is very unlikely.” He also thanked Kurdish culture in his official Medal video which, he says, helped him survive.