Fields Medal, the math Nobel, comes to India

మొన్నటి "Times of India" న్యూస్ పేపర్లోని ఒక వ్యక్తిని గురించిన ఈ వార్త నన్ను చాలా ఆకట్టుకుంది. The news about a Reclusive Russian genius "Grigory Perelman".Though we don't know the reasons for his recluse and refusing big prizes, the thing that fascinated me is the man's simplicity and his disinterest towards an amount of $1 million...! ఆసక్తికరమైన Fields Medal గురించి Mr.Perelman గురించి క్రింద చదవండి..

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Fields Medal, the math Nobel, comes to India
New Delhi:
For the first time ever, the Fields Medal — popularly known as the Nobel Prize for mathematics — will be announced from Indian soil. India has won the bid over Canada to host the prestigious International Congress of Mathematicians 2010, the inaugural function of which will see announcement of the medal’s latest winner, most probably by President Pratibha Patil. The Congress, which was first held way back in 1897, will take place in Hyderabad from August 19-27.


The Fields Medal is awarded to the world’s best mathematicians at the Congress, held once every four years. But unlike the Nobel, winners of the Medal can’t be over 40 years of age. This is one reason why many great mathematicians have missed it, having done their best work or having had their work recognised too late in life.
Founded at the behest of Canadian mathematician John Charles Fields, the medal was first awarded in 1936 to Finnish mathematician Lars Ahlfors and American mathematician Jesse Douglas, and has been periodically awarded since 1950. No Indian has ever won it.

Hyderabad will also see the installing of a new prize — the Chern Prize — named after S S Chern, a towering figure in geometry in the 20th century.
Interestingly, there will be another first this year for the Congress — a unique International Congress of Women Mathematicians — two days before the ICM. Of the 400 women who have already registered for the Congress, around 150 are from India.
The conference will have another attraction — it will see 40 mathematicians play chess against world champion Vishwanathan Anand. Dr M S Raghunathan from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research’s school of mathematics said, “This is the third time that the Congress is taking place in Asia, after Kyoto in 1990 and Beijing in 2002. We had bid for it way back in 2004 and we finally won it. The Congress will see 200 invited talks. The last time, it was held in Spain. We expect about 400 people to attend it.”

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No to $1 mn?Reclusive Russian genius who refuses awards may attend the meet in Hyderabad
St. Petersburg/New Delhi: Who doesn’t want to be a millionaire? Maybe a 43-year-old unemployed bachelor who lives with his elderly mother in Russia and who won $1 million for solving a problem that has stumped mathematicians for a century. Grigory Perelman can’t decide if he wants the money.
“He said he would need to think about it,” said James Carlson, who telephoned Perelman with the news he had won the Millennium Prize awarded by the Clay Mathematics Institute of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Carlson said he wasn’t too surprised by the apparent lack of interest from Perelman, a reclusive genius who has a history of refusing big prizes.

What’s exciting officials in India is a possibility of the Congress being attended by Perelman, one of the world’s most reclusive yet brilliant maths wizards. Dr Raghunathan told TOI that efforts were on to get Perelman to Hyderabad.
Perelman became the first person ever to decline the Fields Medal four years ago. But he is now under fresh pressure to receive another highly prestigious award for solving one of the century’s most complex mathematical problems — the Poincare Conjecture. Perelman, 43, has cut himself off from the outside world and lives with his elderly mother in a tiny flat in St Petersburg. It was on March 18, 2010, that the Clay Mathematics Institute announced it had awarded Perelman the $1 million Millennium Prize. Dr Raghunathan said, “I have written to Clay Institute asking for Perelman’s address in order to reach him and invite him.” Perelman was honoured for proving the Poincare Conjecture, a theorem about the characterisation of the three dimensional sphere. Originally conjectured by Henri Poincare, the claim concerns a space that locally looks like ordinary three-dimensional space but is connected, finite in size, and lacks any boundary. That was one of seven problems the Clay Institute identified in 2000 as being worthy of a $1 million Millennium Prize. It’s the first problem on the list to be solved. Technically, the award is a done deal. “He has been awarded the prize. That’s the decision of the committee,” Carlson said. “He may or may not accept the money.” TNN & AGENCIES