Mathematics deserves the prize
2006/07/01 Roa Zubia, Guillermo - Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria
Perhaps the main reason to investigate is not the desire to win a prize. However, the research awards have had a great historical tradition. Sometimes, these are awards driven by specific objectives such as the conversion of iron into gold or the precise measurement of the length of any point on the earth's surface. On other occasions, it has wanted to reward all that the research offers. What is coming comes. Whatever is of quality. And science has to reward.
Among the latter, the Nobel prize is the best known. The best known and most repairing, supposedly the dream of any researcher. But not all researchers have the opportunity to win the Nobel prize, since in Alfred Nobel's will there was no room for all research. In total there are five awards defined in this will, but the prize to Mathematics was not among the intentions of Alfred Nobel.
Subsequently, a new prize was added to this list, that of Economy, which is not the Nobel Prize, but the Prize of Economic Sciences awarded by the Bank of Sweden in honor of Alfred Nobel. In any case, in terms of prestige and retribution, it is equivalent to the Nobel Prize, and today it is an opportunity for mathematicians to receive the Novel, since on many occasions they have awarded the Mathematics applied to the economy.
On the other hand, several mathematicians have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry or Physics for the importance that the research carried out has had in these fields. In this regard, it should be noted that the British Bentrand Rusell is the only mathematician who has received the Literary Novel. A researcher, although mathematician, has the opportunity to choose the prize. But this does not replace the Nobel Prize in Mathematics. It must be taken into account that a geometry or a topologist, for example, will never receive Nobel as a prize for his research if it has no application in another field.
Beyond the novel
That is why it is the Special Mathematics Novel, because the debate has been created by a non-existent prize. There are those who think that Mathematics itself is awarded with other Nobel Prizes because Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Biology and all sciences also have Mathematics. Yes, but that does not satisfy the mathematicians, since the prize awarded for this work will be received by others.
However, the Nobel Prize is not the only prize in the world. Why should mathematicians fight for the possibility of receiving the Nobel Prize? There are other prizes and, of course, the possibility to organize new prizes.
Before Alfred Nobel wrote the will, there were prizes of Mathematics, Mathematics of Scandinavia and Bolyai of Hungary, for example. Novels would certainly know them, and perhaps that is why he did not want to award Mathematics with his awards. However, since the creation of the Novel, the existence of other awards was not enough, with no more awards than the Nobel Prize.
Nothing else was born the novels, Norwegian scientists wanted to give a solution to this problem by creating an equivalent to the Mathematics Novel. The prize was baptized as Abel in honor of Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel. But there were problems. For example, the political situation worsened; in 1905 the union between Sweden and Norway broke. This overturned the claim of the Abel prize.
Fields and Abel
Thirty years later the Fields medals were given for the first time, but the origin of this prize was different. XIX. In the twentieth century national associations emerged in many states and gradually the need to celebrate a great international assembly of mathematicians was expanded. The German Felix Klein, for example, expressed this need at a conference held in Chicago in 1893. Following the famous communist slogan he shouted: "Mathematicians from all over the world, we invite you! ".
And years later they joined. For this purpose, the BWI (International Congress of Mathematicians of English) began to organize four-year meetings. The first took place in Zurich in 1897.
The Canadian John Fields created an award they were going to give at these congresses, gave some rules and put money. He died before starting to deliver the prize, but the prize that bears his name, the Fields Medal, enjoys great prestige.
As for money, the Fields medal is not a grand prize, so the community of mathematicians has been waiting for many years for a grand prize. Finally, the idea of the Abel prize was resumed, which was launched in 2002. Taught by the Norwegian Academy of Sciences and Letters, at least in money is like the Novel. In the 2005 editions, Nobel and Abel were awarded with 1,070,000 and 762,000 euros, respectively.
In recent years there is a substitute for the Nobel Prize in Mathematics, one is none other than two. However, there are many other prizes in science that can be received by mathematicians. The most important is the Wolf, granted by the Wolf Foundation of Israel. It is taught in six areas, including that of Mathematics.
