María de la Paz Tirado Hernández (Seville, 1991) is currently an assistant lecturer at the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM) and a member of the Institute of Mathematical Sciences (ICMAT).

María de la Paz Tirado Hernández works in the field of algebraic geometry at UAM and ICMAT. Image courtesy of the researcher

Research area: Algebraic geometry.

What she enjoys most about her work: Finding the proof of a result she has been pursuing for a long time—those moments when she feels she is the only person who truly knows the result is correct.

Her research experience: For her, “this job is like a game in which you set a goal, study the rules, and design a strategy to win”, although there are also moments of great frustration.

Her first contact with research: In 2014, when she was awarded an introductory research grant at the Institute of Mathematics of the University of Seville. However, she had already had some contact with research during her undergraduate final project (TFG), which was supervised by the person who would later become her thesis advisor.

The moment she knew she wanted to pursue mathematics: During a secondary school exam, when she completed her first proof. She was captivated by the challenge of figuring out how to prove a statement—and then succeeding shortly after.

More about María de la Paz Tirado Hernández

From 2009 to 2013, she studied for a degree in Mathematics, and in the 2013–2014 academic year, she completed a Master’s in Advanced Mathematics, both at the University of Seville (US). Between 2014 and 2019, she carried out her PhD in algebraic geometry, also at US, under the supervision of Luis Narváez Macarro (US). In her thesis, Tirado Hernández studied three problems related to so-called jumps in integrability, in the Hasse–Schmidt sense. For this work, she received the Vicent Caselles Prize from the BBVA Foundation in 2021.

In addition, Tirado Hernández worked as a researcher on a project at US until 2022, when she began a Juan de la Cierva–Training fellowship at UAM. Since May 2024, she has been an assistant lecturer at the same university and a member of ICMAT.

12 May: Day of Women in Mathematics

On 12 May 1977, Maryam Mirzakhani was born in Tehran. She was the first woman to be awarded the Fields Medal, the highest distinction in mathematics. After her untimely death in 2017, during the World Meeting for Women in Mathematics held in July 2018 in Rio de Janeiro, the Women’s Committee of the Iranian Mathematical Society proposed that 12 May be recognised as the Day of Women in Mathematics. ICMAT has participated in the activities commemorating this day since 2020.