Caucher Birkar FRS (Kurdish: کۆچەر بیرکار, romanized: Koçer Bîrkar, lit.

[6] He was awarded the Fields Medal in 2018, "for his proof of boundedness of Fano varieties and contributions to the minimal model program".

Birkar is a Kurd, born in 1978 in Marivan County, Kurdistan province, Iran, on a subsistence farm, and raised during the Iran-Iraq War.

[10][8] Following his graduation from high school,[8] Birkar studied mathematics at the University of Tehran where he received his bachelor's degree.

[13] In 2003 he was awarded the Cecil King Travel Scholarship by the London Mathematical Society as the most promising PhD student.

[7] In a video made available by the Simons Foundation, Birkar expressed hope that his Fields Medal will put "just a little smile on the lips" of the world's estimated 40 million Kurds.