The Abel Prize for Mathematical Geniuses
by David Barth, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The Abel Prize
The Abel Prize is an international prize presented annually by the King of Norway to one or more outstanding
mathematicians. The prize is named after Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel (1802-1829). It has been
described as the "mathematician's Nobel" prize by Keith Devlin, and is among the most prestigious awards in
mathematics. It comes with a monetary award, which in 2008 was US$1.2 million.
The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters annually declares the winner of the Abel Prize after selection by a
committee of five international mathematicians. The amount of money that comes with the prize is usually close to
one million USD, similar to the Nobel Prize, which is awarded in Sweden and Norway and excludes mathematics.
Norway gave the prize an initial funding of NOK 200,000,000 (about $23,000,000 USD) in 2001. The prize is an attempt at
creating publicity for mathematics, making the science more prestigious, especially for young people.
The prize board has also established an Abel symposium, administered by the Norwegian Mathematics
Society.
History
The prize was first proposed to be part of the 1902 celebration of 100th anniversary of Abel's birth. In 1899,
shortly before his death, Sophus Lie proposed establishing an Abel Prize when he learned that Alfred Nobel's plans
for annual prizes, made known in 1897, would not include a prize in mathematics. King Oscar II was willing to finance
a mathematics prize in Abel's name, and the mathematicians Ludwig Sylow and Carl Stormer drew up statutes and rules
for the proposed prize. However, Lie's influence waned after his death, and the dissolution of the Union between
Sweden and Norway in 1905 ended the first attempt to create the Abel Prize.
In 2001, after interest in the prize had risen, a working group was formed to develop a proposal, which was presented
to the prime minister of Norway in May.
In August 2001, the Norwegian government announced that the prize would be awarded beginning in 2002, the two-hundredth
anniversary of Abel's birth.
Citations
- 2003
"for playing a key role in shaping the modern form of many parts of mathematics, including topology, algebraic
geometry and number theory."
- 2004
"for their discovery and proof of the index theorem, bringing together topology, geometry and analysis, and their
outstanding role in building new bridges between mathematics and theoretical physics."
- 2005
"for his groundbreaking contributions to the theory and application of partial differential equations and to the
computation of their solutions."
- 2006
"for his profound and seminal contributions to harmonic analysis and the theory of smooth dynamical
systems."
- 2007
"for his fundamental contributions to probability theory and in particular for creating a unified theory of large
deviation."
2008
"for their profound achievements in algebra and in particular for shaping modern group theory."