At 17, Hannah Cairo Solved a Major Math Mystery

Hannah Cairo, a 17-year-old homeschooled student, disproved the 40-year-old Mizohata-Takeuchi conjecture in harmonic analysis after joining a Berkeley graduate class. Her breakthrough showed that certain functions can behave in ways mathematicians thought impossible, creating a fractal-like pattern that violated established mathematical expectations. Cairo's unconventional journey from isolated homeschooling to mathematical discovery has reshaped harmonic analysis research, leading to her acceptance into a doctoral program at the University of Maryland despite having no prior degrees.