Fatma Moalla is a Tunisian mathematician who conducts research on Finsler spaces. In 1961, she became the first Tunisian to receive the Aggregation Award in France. She subsequently became the first Tunisian woman to receive a PhD in Math in France.
In honor of Fatma's mathematical achievements, the International Fatma Moalla Award for the Popularization of Mathematics is now awarded annually to researchers who popularize their research for the public.
Moalla's childhood had a significant impact on her decision to become a mathematician. Her father was a bookstore owner, which placed her in the precipitious climate of many academics. As she states, "As for us [children], at that time, we went out very little and we used to stay home. But I will always keep a wonderful memory of my childhood in the Bardo family house, often in the garden, with my mother, so gentle, so enlightened, so open, so good, and with my sisters and young nephew. From my childhood, I will also remember that our greatest joy, my sisters and myself, was to go into my father's back bookstore to practice our favorite sport: reading! How many books have been devoured!"
For undergraduate, she attended the prestigious Lycée Carnot, where she was charged with making of decision of pursuing either mathematics, experimental science, or philosophy. She later reflected that she chose mathematics because of her inclination for rigor and precision, two aspects that mathematics readily delivered.
