--- description: Find out how Maryna Viazovska is shaping the future and defining the next generation of leadership. title: 2022 TIME100 Next: Maryna Viazovska image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt10d024465431ec70/698a35cacabb1d6c55e50af8/time100-next-maryna-viazovska.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Sep 28, 2022 # Maryna Viazovska by [Jeffrey Kluger](/author/jeffrey-kluger/) ## Jeffrey Kluger Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Editor at Large  Fred Merz—Lundi13 Fred Merz—Lundi13Fred Merz—Lundi13 This summer Maryna Viazovska, a professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, became [only the second woman ever to win the Fields Medal](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ukrainian-mathematician-becomes-second-woman-to-win-prestigious-fields-medal/ "undefined")—the highest award for mathematicians. More than 400 years ago, astronomer and mathematician Johannes Kepler proved that the most efficient way to stack a given number of cannonballs was in a pyramid—the way oranges are stacked in a supermarket—with the spheres taking up 75% of the available volume. Viazovska moved Kepler’s work out of three ­dimensions, and into the 21st century, with a series of mathematical proofs showing that in eight-­dimensional space, spheres can be packed even more efficiently, taking up just 25% of available volume. In 24 dimensions, she found, they could be arranged to take up a mere 0.2%. Arcane? Yes. But promising. Viazovska’s proofs are closely related to error-­correcting codes that are used in cell phones, spacecraft, and the internet, and could one day make for clearer connections across many forms of communication. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-next-2022/6213877/maryna-viazovska/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-next-2022/6213877/maryna-viazovska/"},"headline":"Maryna Viazovska","datePublished":"2022-09-28T09:56:14.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T00:06:22.022Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/time100-next-2022/6213877/maryna-viazovska/","keywords":["TIME 100 Next","sponsorshipblock","time100nextinnovators2022"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt10d024465431ec70/698a35cacabb1d6c55e50af8/time100-next-maryna-viazovska.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jeffrey Kluger","jobTitle":"Editor at Large","url":"https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/"}],"creator":"Jeffrey Kluger","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt10d024465431ec70/698a35cacabb1d6c55e50af8/time100-next-maryna-viazovska.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-next-2022/6213877/maryna-viazovska/","name":"Maryna Viazovska"}}]}] ```