}

Fields Award Ceremony with Surprises

2006/08/22 Rementeria Argote, Nagore - Elhuyar Zientziaren Komunikazioa

This year the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM2006) was organized in Madrid. The congress will bring together thousands of mathematicians from around the world in the coming days. The opening ceremony was awarded the Fields medals. The winning mathematicians were Andrei Okounkov, Grigori Perelman, Terence Tao and Wendelin Werner.
The International Congress of Mathematicians begins in Madrid.

The Fields Awards are, so to speak, the Nobel Prizes in Mathematics, which are awarded every four years. Somehow, they reward the work of the fastest young mathematicians of today (to receive the prize must be less than forty years). Next to the medal, the winner also receives a prize of about eleven thousand euros, which is a great expectation to know the names of the winners.

As this year has highlighted a name above all: Grigori Perelman. Perelman solved the first problem of the millennium, the conjective of Poincare, so it appeared in all five of the winners. Those who bet on Perelman have not failed: He has been awarded a Fields medal. But he has not received it.

The truth is that the days before the congress Perelman has been boiling to collect the medal. It seems to have a rather lonely character and a few days ago he told a journalist from The Sunday Telegraph that he has nothing interesting to say, his calculations are published and that's what he has to offer people. It is not little.

Otherwise, the award ceremony has gone as expected. Okounkov, Tao and Werner have shown their satisfaction for the award and for the recognition of the International Mathematical Association.

In the coming days the most outstanding topics of mathematics will be discussed.