TRUE or FALSE: If X has an exponential distribution, then it has the memoryless property.

TRUE or FALSE: If X ≥ 0 almost surely and E[X] = 0, then X = 0 almost surely.

Maryna Viazovska is a Ukrainian mathematician who made one of the most celebrated breakthroughs of the 21st century by solving the sphere-packing problem in eight dimensions. In 2016 she found an explicit and remarkably elegant formula proving that the E8 lattice gives the densest possible packing of spheres in 8D, a problem that had remained open for decades. Shortly after, working with collaborators, she extended these ideas to 24 dimensions, resolving the Leech lattice case as well. Her work combined deep ideas from Fourier analysis, modular forms, and optimization in a way no one had anticipated, revealing unexpected connections between number theory, geometry, and physics. For this achievement she was awarded the Fields Medal in 2022, becoming the second woman to receive it. Viazovska’s work influences coding theory, cryptography, and information theory, where high-dimensional packing governs how efficiently data and signals can be transmitted and stored.