Cancel my subscription to the Resurrection
In November 2002, an obscure Russian mathematician named Grigori Perelman caused a sensation in the mathematical community when he posted the first in a series of papers proving the most famous unsolved problem in topology: the Poincaré conjecture. He caused another sensation four years later when he was awarded the Fields medal - the “mathematics Nobel” - for his work, declined to accept it, and then left mathematics altogether. When last heard of, he was living a reclusive existence at his mother’s home in St Petersburg.
{ NewScientist | Continue reading }
Russian math prodigy Grigory Perelman should be a celebrated millionaire. Instead, he is a poor recluse who lives with his mother.
In 2006, Sir John Ball, the president of the International Mathematical Union, travelled to St. Petersburg hoping to convince Grigory Perelman to accept his place as the most celebrated mathematician alive.
Ball spent two days there, locked in an increasingly desperate argument with Perelman, a haughty, dishevelled 39-year-old. Ball asked Perelman to accept a Fields Medal, the highest award for achievement in mathematics. The Fields is given out every four years, to as few as two recipients. Perelman, the man who had solved the insoluble Poincaré Conjecture, refused the award. Four years earlier, he had turned down a $1 million prize for the same solution.
Ball first tried to convince Perelman to travel to Spain for the ceremony. Since Perelman rarely left the dilapidated flat he shared with his mother, that went nowhere. Ball suggested Perelman skip the ceremony, but accept the award. He declined again. Eventually, Ball left, baffled and frustrated. The prize was awarded to Perelman anyway.
{ The Star | Continue reading | Perelman in a Subway [pics] }
related { It may be no accident that, while some of the best American mathematical minds worked to solve one of the century’s hardest problems—the Poincaré Conjecture—it was a Russian mathematician working in Russia who, early in this decade, finally triumphed. | Wall Street Journal }
