Fields 2014 The Fields Medal is the most prestigious prize in mathematics, on the level of the Nobel Prize in other domains. It is given every 4 years in the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) to at most 4 outstanding young mathematicians. Young here meas that the age is at most 40 or 40 plus a few months in the case where the 40th birthday is held at the year in which the prize is given. The next ICM will start on Wednesday in Seoul, South Korea (August 13-August 21, time zone: UTC+9), less than 24 hours from now. The winners in the 2014 Fields Medal will be announced at the opening ceremony. In the next paragraphs I will say something about a few mathematicians who, in my opinion, have a real chance to win the prize. Needless to say that I dont really know who will win the prize and it may happen that none of the mathematicians mentioned below will receive it: there are many other very strong candidates that I havent mentioned. Dont hesitate to add your comments and candidates (if any). Before giving more details, it is worth saying a few words regarding the criteria for receiving the prize (beyond the age limit). In a nutshell, every mathematician gains an unwritten score during her or his years of professional activity, and the very few ones with the highest score are shortlisted to be candidates for the prize. Then a special committee selects the 4 (or less) winners. What is this mysterious unwritten score? it is a combination (like a weighted sum) of the scientific outcome that one has achieved: the quality and quantity of the publications in (prestigious) journals and conferences, the quality and quantity of the problems one has solved, the quality and quantity of the prizes and grants one has won, the order of magnitude of the effect of ones research on the domains in which one works, the quality and quantity of the co-authors one has collaborated with, the quality and quantity of talks one has given, and so on. This score is not something that is formally written in some database and there is no agreed rule how to compute it, but still, at the end of the day, the CV of someone tells something very real about this score. Over the years, there are people who become famous due to their outstanding scientific work (which is summarized in their CV), and they are the candidates for the prize. As quite common in such cases, there are inevitable battles between people (including between the members of the committee) and definitely not everything is smooth and nice, unfortunately. Since the number of winners is so small, there are many big disappointments and many cases of very outstanding people who havent received the prize. However, one should remember that prizes like this are not the main thing in a professional career. On the other hand, in contrast to certain other related cases (e.g., The Nobel Prize for Peace), winners of the Fields Medal have really proved that they deserve an outstanding honor. OK, after saying so much background words, let me say a few words about 4 mathematicians who I consider as strong candidates (links to their websites: in the comments). The first is Assaf Naor, originally from Israel, and now at the Courant Institute, NYU (New York University). He works in several domains, including functional analysis, computer science, probability, and geometry. I met him only once, in May 2013, in a conference at the Hebrew University, Israel. Interestingly, since Assaf has made outstanding achievements also in computer science, he may be a candidate to the Nevanlinna Prize which is also given at the opening ceremony of the ICM. If Assaf wins the prize, then he will be the second Israeli who wins the Fields Medal. The first one was Elon Lindenstrauss, in 2010. Elon is the son of Joram Lindenstrauss (1936-2012) who was an outstanding mathematician too and was the academic father (Ph.D advisor) of Assaf. Thus a Fields to Assaf means that Joram will have two types of sons who won the prize. The second mathematician is Ben Green (British), now at Oxford University (before at Cambridge). He mainly works in number theory, combinatorics, algebra and harmonic analysis. I have never met him. The third mathematician is Artur Avila (Brazilian), from the Institut de Mathématiques de Jussieu-Paris Rive Gauche CNRS (France) who also has a special position at IMPA, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (The National Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics). His domains of research are mainly dynamical systems and spectral theory. I met him a few times at IMPA, when I was a postdoc there 92011-2013), but I have never talked to him. The fourth mathematician is Fernando Coda Marques (Brazilian), from IMPA, Rio. He mainly work in differential geometry. I met him many times and we had several discussions, since I went to his seminar in differential geometry and to some of his talks [and I asked him too many questions :-) ]. Thats almost the end. It may worth saying that Artur and Fernando are young enough to be candidates also for the next round in 2018 (which, interestingly, will be at IMPA, Rio). This fact may play in favor of other candidates, including Assaf and Ben, but not necessarily. So again, dont hesitate to add your comments and candidates (if any) in the comments below, and dont forget that the results will be announced less than 24 hours from now, in the link below. Stay tuned!! bit.ly/1oZwQOz
Posted on: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 04:38:42 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015