Abel Prize
Encyclopedia
The Abel Prize is an international prize presented annually by the King of Norway to one or more outstanding mathematician
s. The prize is named after Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel
(1802–1829). It has often been described as the "mathematician's Nobel prize" and is among the most prestigious awards in mathematics. It comes with a monetary award of six million kroner
, which is approx. (2011) 1 million US dollars.
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 committee is headed by Ragni Piene
. The International Mathematical Union
and the European Mathematical Society
nominate members of The Abel Committee. The amount of money that comes with the prize is usually close to US$ 1 million, similar to the Nobel Prizes, which are awarded in Sweden
and Norway
and exclude mathematics
. Norway gave the prize an initial funding of NOK
200,000,000 (about US$23,000,000) in 2001. The prize is an attempt at creating publicity for mathematics, making the discipline more prestigious, especially for young people.
The prize board has also established an Abel symposium, administered by the Norwegian Mathematical Society
.
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 Størmer
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. The first prize was actually awarded in 2003.
A book series recently commenced, with one volume every five years, will present the Abel Prize laureates and their research. The first volume covers the years 2003–2007.
Mathematician
A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
s. The prize is named after Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel
Niels Henrik Abel
Niels Henrik Abel was a Norwegian mathematician who proved the impossibility of solving the quintic equation in radicals.-Early life:...
(1802–1829). It has often been described as the "mathematician's Nobel prize" and is among the most prestigious awards in mathematics. It comes with a monetary award of six million kroner
Norwegian krone
The krone is the currency of Norway and its dependent territories. The plural form is kroner . It is subdivided into 100 øre. The ISO 4217 code is NOK, although the common local abbreviation is kr. The name translates into English as "crown"...
, which is approx. (2011) 1 million US dollars.
The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway.-History:The University of Oslo was established in 1811. The idea of a learned society in Christiania surfaced for the first time in 1841. The city of Throndhjem had no university, but had a learned...
annually declares the winner of the Abel Prize after selection by a committee of five international mathematicians. The committee is headed by Ragni Piene
Ragni Piene
Ragni Piene is a Norwegian mathematician.Her research is within the field of algebraic geometry. She took her doctorate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1976 and was appointed professor at the University of Oslo in 1987...
. The International Mathematical Union
International Mathematical Union
The International Mathematical Union is an international non-governmental organisation devoted to international cooperation in the field of mathematics across the world. It is a member of the International Council for Science and supports the International Congress of Mathematicians...
and the European Mathematical Society
European Mathematical Society
The European Mathematical Society is a European organization dedicated to the development of mathematics in Europe. Its members are different mathematical societies in Europe, academic institutions and individual mathematicians...
nominate members of The Abel Committee. The amount of money that comes with the prize is usually close to US$ 1 million, similar to the Nobel Prizes, which are awarded in Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
and Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
and exclude mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
. Norway gave the prize an initial funding of NOK
Norwegian krone
The krone is the currency of Norway and its dependent territories. The plural form is kroner . It is subdivided into 100 øre. The ISO 4217 code is NOK, although the common local abbreviation is kr. The name translates into English as "crown"...
200,000,000 (about US$23,000,000) in 2001. The prize is an attempt at creating publicity for mathematics, making the discipline more prestigious, especially for young people.
The prize board has also established an Abel symposium, administered by the Norwegian Mathematical Society
Norwegian Mathematical Society
The Norwegian Mathematical Society is a professional society for mathematicians. It also organizes mathematical contests and the annual Abel symposium. It was formed in 1918, with Carl Størmer elected as its first president....
.
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 LieSophus Lie
Marius Sophus Lie was a Norwegian mathematician. He largely created the theory of continuous symmetry, and applied it to the study of geometry and differential equations.- Biography :...
proposed establishing an Abel Prize when he learned that Alfred Nobel
Alfred Nobel
Alfred Bernhard Nobel was a Swedish chemist, engineer, innovator, and armaments manufacturer. He is the inventor of dynamite. Nobel also owned Bofors, which he had redirected from its previous role as primarily an iron and steel producer to a major manufacturer of cannon and other armaments...
's plans for annual prizes, made
known in 1897, would not include a prize in mathematics. King Oscar II
Oscar II of Sweden
Oscar II , baptised Oscar Fredrik was King of Sweden from 1872 until his death and King of Norway from 1872 until 1905. The third son of King Oscar I of Sweden and Josephine of Leuchtenberg, he was a descendant of Gustav I of Sweden through his mother.-Early life:At his birth in Stockholm, Oscar...
was willing to finance a mathematics prize in Abel's name, and the mathematicians Ludwig Sylow and Carl Størmer
Carl Størmer
Fredrik Carl Mülertz Størmer was a Norwegian mathematician and physicist, known both for his work in number theory and for studying the movement of charged particles in the magnetosphere and the formation of aurorae....
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
Union between Sweden and Norway
The Union between Sweden and Norway , officially the United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway, consisted of present-day Sweden and Norway between 1814 and 1905, when they were united under one monarch in a personal union....
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
Anniversary
An anniversary is a day that commemorates or celebrates a past event that occurred on the same day of the year as the initial event. For example, the first event is the initial occurrence or, if planned, the inaugural of the event. One year later would be the first anniversary of that event...
of Abel's birth. The first prize was actually awarded in 2003.
A book series recently commenced, with one volume every five years, will present the Abel Prize laureates and their research. The first volume covers the years 2003–2007.
Laureates
| Year | Laureate(s) | Institution | Nationality | Citation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Jean-Pierre Serre Jean-Pierre Serre Jean-Pierre Serre is a French mathematician. He has made contributions in the fields of algebraic geometry, number theory, and topology.-Early years:... |
Collège de France Collège de France The Collège de France is a higher education and research establishment located in Paris, France, in the 5th arrondissement, or Latin Quarter, across the street from the historical campus of La Sorbonne at the intersection of Rue Saint-Jacques and Rue des Écoles... |
 |
“for playing a key role in shaping the modern form of many parts of mathematics, including topology Topology Topology is a major area of mathematics concerned with properties that are preserved under continuous deformations of objects, such as deformations that involve stretching, but no tearing or gluing... , algebraic geometry Algebraic geometry Algebraic geometry is a branch of mathematics which combines techniques of abstract algebra, especially commutative algebra, with the language and the problems of geometry. It occupies a central place in modern mathematics and has multiple conceptual connections with such diverse fields as complex... and number theory Number theory Number theory is a branch of pure mathematics devoted primarily to the study of the integers. Number theorists study prime numbers as well... ” |
| 2004 | Michael F. Atiyah Michael Atiyah Sir Michael Francis Atiyah, OM, FRS, FRSE is a British mathematician working in geometry.Atiyah grew up in Sudan and Egypt but spent most of his academic life in the United Kingdom at Oxford and Cambridge, and in the United States at the Institute for Advanced Study... Isadore M. Singer Isadore Singer Isadore Manuel Singer is an Institute Professor in the Department of Mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology... |
University of Edinburgh University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university... MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in... |
  |
“for their discovery and proof of the index theorem Atiyah–Singer index theorem In differential geometry, the Atiyah–Singer index theorem, proved by , states that for an elliptic differential operator on a compact manifold, the analytical index is equal to the topological index... , bringing together topology Topology Topology is a major area of mathematics concerned with properties that are preserved under continuous deformations of objects, such as deformations that involve stretching, but no tearing or gluing... , geometry Geometry Geometry arose as the field of knowledge dealing with spatial relationships. Geometry was one of the two fields of pre-modern mathematics, the other being the study of numbers .... and analysis Mathematical analysis Mathematical analysis, which mathematicians refer to simply as analysis, has its beginnings in the rigorous formulation of infinitesimal calculus. It is a branch of pure mathematics that includes the theories of differentiation, integration and measure, limits, infinite series, and analytic functions... , and their outstanding role in building new bridges between mathematics and theoretical physics Theoretical physics Theoretical physics is a branch of physics which employs mathematical models and abstractions of physics to rationalize, explain and predict natural phenomena... ” |
| 2005 | Peter D. Lax Peter Lax Peter David Lax is a mathematician working in the areas of pure and applied mathematics. He has made important contributions to integrable systems, fluid dynamics and shock waves, solitonic physics, hyperbolic conservation laws, and mathematical and scientific computing, among other fields... |
Courant Institute, NYU Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences The Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences is an independent division of New York University under the Faculty of Arts & Science that serves as a center for research and advanced training in computer science and mathematics... |
 / |
“for his groundbreaking contributions to the theory and application of partial differential equation Partial differential equation In mathematics, partial differential equations are a type of differential equation, i.e., a relation involving an unknown function of several independent variables and their partial derivatives with respect to those variables... s and to the computation of their solutions” |
| 2006 | Lennart Carleson Lennart Carleson Lennart Axel Edvard Carleson is a Swedish mathematician, known as a leader in the field of harmonic analysis.-Life:He was a student of Arne Beurling and received his Ph.D. from Uppsala University in 1950... |
KTH Royal Institute of Technology The Royal Institute of Technology is a university in Stockholm, Sweden. KTH was founded in 1827 as Sweden's first polytechnic and is one of Scandinavia's largest institutions of higher education in technology. KTH accounts for one-third of Sweden’s technical research and engineering education... |
 |
“for his profound and seminal contributions to harmonic analysis Harmonic analysis Harmonic analysis is the branch of mathematics that studies the representation of functions or signals as the superposition of basic waves. It investigates and generalizes the notions of Fourier series and Fourier transforms... and the theory of smooth dynamical system Dynamical system A dynamical system is a concept in mathematics where a fixed rule describes the time dependence of a point in a geometrical space. Examples include the mathematical models that describe the swinging of a clock pendulum, the flow of water in a pipe, and the number of fish each springtime in a... s” |
| 2007 | S. R. Srinivasa Varadhan S. R. Srinivasa Varadhan Sathamangalam Ranga Iyengar Srinivasa Varadhan FRS is an Indian-American mathematician from Madras , Tamil Nadu, India.-Biography:... |
Courant Institute, NYU Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences The Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences is an independent division of New York University under the Faculty of Arts & Science that serves as a center for research and advanced training in computer science and mathematics... |
 / |
“for his fundamental contributions to probability theory Probability theory Probability theory is the branch of mathematics concerned with analysis of random phenomena. The central objects of probability theory are random variables, stochastic processes, and events: mathematical abstractions of non-deterministic events or measured quantities that may either be single... and in particular for creating a unified theory of large deviation Large deviations theory In probability theory, the theory of large deviations concerns the asymptotic behaviour of remote tails of sequences of probability distributions. Some basic ideas of the theory can be tracked back to Laplace and Cramér, although a clear unified formal definition was introduced in 1966 by Varadhan... ” |
| 2008 | John G. Thompson John G. Thompson John Griggs Thompson is a mathematician at the University of Florida noted for his work in the field of finite groups. He was awarded the Fields Medal in 1970, the Wolf Prize in 1992 and the 2008 Abel Prize.... Jacques Tits Jacques Tits Jacques Tits is a Belgian and French mathematician who works on group theory and geometry and who introduced Tits buildings, the Tits alternative, and the Tits group.- Career :Tits received his doctorate in mathematics at the age of 20... |
University of Florida University of Florida The University of Florida is an American public land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant research university located on a campus in Gainesville, Florida. The university traces its historical origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its present Gainesville campus since September 1906... Collège de France Collège de France The Collège de France is a higher education and research establishment located in Paris, France, in the 5th arrondissement, or Latin Quarter, across the street from the historical campus of La Sorbonne at the intersection of Rue Saint-Jacques and Rue des Écoles... |
 / |
“for their profound achievements in algebra Algebra Algebra is the branch of mathematics concerning the study of the rules of operations and relations, and the constructions and concepts arising from them, including terms, polynomials, equations and algebraic structures... and in particular for shaping modern group theory Group theory In mathematics and abstract algebra, group theory studies the algebraic structures known as groups.The concept of a group is central to abstract algebra: other well-known algebraic structures, such as rings, fields, and vector spaces can all be seen as groups endowed with additional operations and... ” |
| 2009 | Mikhail Gromov | IHÉS Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques The Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques is a French institute supporting advanced research in mathematics and theoretical physics... Courant Institute, NYU Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences The Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences is an independent division of New York University under the Faculty of Arts & Science that serves as a center for research and advanced training in computer science and mathematics... |
 / |
“for his revolutionary contributions to geometry” |
| 2010 | John T. Tate | UT Austin University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin... |
|
“for his vast and lasting impact on the theory of numbers Number theory Number theory is a branch of pure mathematics devoted primarily to the study of the integers. Number theorists study prime numbers as well... ” |
| 2011 | John Milnor John Milnor John Willard Milnor is an American mathematician known for his work in differential topology, K-theory and dynamical systems. He won the Fields Medal in 1962, the Wolf Prize in 1989, and the Abel Prize in 2011. Milnor is a distinguished professor at Stony Brook University... |
Stony Brook University | |
“for pioneering discoveries in topology Topology Topology is a major area of mathematics concerned with properties that are preserved under continuous deformations of objects, such as deformations that involve stretching, but no tearing or gluing... , geometry Geometry Geometry arose as the field of knowledge dealing with spatial relationships. Geometry was one of the two fields of pre-modern mathematics, the other being the study of numbers .... , and algebra Algebra Algebra is the branch of mathematics concerning the study of the rules of operations and relations, and the constructions and concepts arising from them, including terms, polynomials, equations and algebraic structures... ” |
See also
- List of prizes, medals, and awards – mathematics
- Chern Medal
- Fields MedalFields MedalThe Fields Medal, officially known as International Medal for Outstanding Discoveries in Mathematics, is a prize awarded to two, three, or four mathematicians not over 40 years of age at each International Congress of the International Mathematical Union , a meeting that takes place every four...
- Nemmers Prize in MathematicsNemmers Prize in MathematicsThe Frederic Esser Nemmers Prize in Mathematics is awarded biennially from Northwestern University. It was initially endowed along with a companion prize, the Erwin Plein Nemmers Prize in Economics, as part of a $14 million donation from the Nemmers brothers. They envisioned creating an award that...
- Nevanlinna PrizeNevanlinna PrizeThe Rolf Nevanlinna Prize is awarded once every 4 years at the International Congress of Mathematicians, for outstanding contributions in Mathematical Aspects of Information Sciences including:...
- Schock PrizeSchock prizeThe Rolf Schock Prizes were established and endowed by bequest of philosopher and artist Rolf Schock . The prizes were first awarded in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1993 and have been awarded every two years since...
- Wolf Prize in MathematicsWolf Prize in MathematicsThe Wolf Prize in Mathematics is awarded almost annually by the Wolf Foundation in Israel. It is one of the six Wolf Prizes established by the Foundation and awarded since 1978; the others are in Agriculture, Chemistry, Medicine, Physics and Arts...
.