For the first time in history, a woman won the Fields Medal mathematics prize -- sometimes called the Nobel prize of math -- almost 80 years after the award was first established, according to The Guardian.

Maryam Mirzakhani, 37, an Iranian maths professor at Stanford University in California, was named the winner at a ceremony in Seoul on Wednesday.

Christiane Rousseau, vice president of the International Mathematics Union, told The Guardian, "It's an extraordinary moment. Marie-Curie had Nobel prizes in physics and chemistry at the beginning of the 20th century, but in mathematics this is the first time we have a woman winning the most prestigious prize there is. This is a celebration for women."

Three others also received the prize, worth 15,000 Canadian dollars, which is awarded to four or fewer winners aged 40 or younger, every four years by the International Mathematicians Union.

The other winners include Martin Hairer, 38, an Austrian at Warwick University in the U.K., Manjul Bhargava, 40, a Canadian-American at Princeton University, and Artur Avila, 35, a Brazilian-French researcher at the Institute of Mathematics of Jussieu in Paris, reported The Guardian.

Mirzakhani was one of several women who were rumored to be in line for the prize in recent years, but her win -- which was anticipated in the community for some time -- is the first by a woman among 55 total since the prize was established in 1936.

"I am thrilled that this day has finally come," said Sir Tim Gowers, a Fields medallist and mathematician at Cambridge University, told The Guardian. "Although women have contributed to mathematics at the highest level for a long time, this fact has not been visible to the general public. I hope that the existence of a female Fields medallist, who will surely be the first of many, will put to bed many myths about women and mathematics, and encourage more young women to think of mathematical research as a possible career."

Mirzakhani's work has been reviewed by peers and complimented as breathtaking in scope, technically superb and boldly ambitious.