Teh One Who Knocks
03-18-2016, 11:56 AM
The Telegraph
http://i.imgur.com/4bvjZEX.jpg
An Oxford University professor has won a £500,000 prize for solving a three-century-old mathematical mystery that was described as an “epochal moment” for academics.
Sir Andrew Wiles, 62, has been awarded the Abel Prize by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters - and almost half a million pounds - for his proof of Fermat's Last Theorem, which he published in 1994.
http://i.imgur.com/MAhM85a.jpg
He will pick up the award and a cheque for six million Norwegian Krone (£495,000) from Crown Prince Haakon of Norway in Oslo in May, for an achievement that academy described as "an epochal moment for mathematics".
Sir Andrew, currently a professor at Oxford University's Mathematical Institute, said: "It is a tremendous honour to receive the Abel Prize and to join the previous laureates who have made such outstanding contributions to the field.
"Fermat's equation was my passion from an early age, and solving it gave me an overwhelming sense of fulfilment.
"It has always been my hope that my solution of this age-old problem would inspire many young people to take up mathematics and to work on the many challenges of this beautiful and fascinating subject."
The academy said Sir Andrew was awarded the prize "for his stunning proof of Fermat's Last Theorem by way of the modularity conjecture for semistable elliptic curves, opening a new era in number theory."
Cambridge-born Sir Andrew made his breakthrough in 1994, while working at Princeton. First formulated by the French mathematician Pierre de Fermat in 1637, the theorem states: There are no whole number solutions to the equation xn + yn = zn when n is greater than 2.
His previous accolades include the Rolf Schock Prize, the Ostrowski Prize, the Wolf Prize, the Royal Medal of the Royal Society, the US National Academy of Science's Award in Mathematics, and the Shaw Prize. He was knighted in 2000.
In its announcement of the award the the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters said: "Andrew J Wiles is one of very few mathematicians - if not the only one - whose proof of a theorem has made international headline news.
"In 1994 he cracked Fermat's Last Theorem which, at the time, was the most famous and long-running unsolved problem in the subject's history.
http://i.imgur.com/zBABe3d.jpg
"Wiles' proof was not only the high point of his career - and an epochal moment for mathematics - but also the culmination of a remarkable personal journey that began three decades earlier."
The Abel Prize was created in 2002 and is named after Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel, who died in 1829.
Awarded annually, it was jointly won last year by John F Nash Jr, the US mathematician and economist who was the subject of the 2001 movie A Beautiful Mind, and Canadian-born mathematician Louis Nirenberg.
Previous British winners include Edinburgh University academic Sir Michael Atiyah, who shared the prize in 2004 with American Isadore Singer for their work on what is known as the Atiyah-Singer theorem.
http://i.imgur.com/4bvjZEX.jpg
An Oxford University professor has won a £500,000 prize for solving a three-century-old mathematical mystery that was described as an “epochal moment” for academics.
Sir Andrew Wiles, 62, has been awarded the Abel Prize by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters - and almost half a million pounds - for his proof of Fermat's Last Theorem, which he published in 1994.
http://i.imgur.com/MAhM85a.jpg
He will pick up the award and a cheque for six million Norwegian Krone (£495,000) from Crown Prince Haakon of Norway in Oslo in May, for an achievement that academy described as "an epochal moment for mathematics".
Sir Andrew, currently a professor at Oxford University's Mathematical Institute, said: "It is a tremendous honour to receive the Abel Prize and to join the previous laureates who have made such outstanding contributions to the field.
"Fermat's equation was my passion from an early age, and solving it gave me an overwhelming sense of fulfilment.
"It has always been my hope that my solution of this age-old problem would inspire many young people to take up mathematics and to work on the many challenges of this beautiful and fascinating subject."
The academy said Sir Andrew was awarded the prize "for his stunning proof of Fermat's Last Theorem by way of the modularity conjecture for semistable elliptic curves, opening a new era in number theory."
Cambridge-born Sir Andrew made his breakthrough in 1994, while working at Princeton. First formulated by the French mathematician Pierre de Fermat in 1637, the theorem states: There are no whole number solutions to the equation xn + yn = zn when n is greater than 2.
His previous accolades include the Rolf Schock Prize, the Ostrowski Prize, the Wolf Prize, the Royal Medal of the Royal Society, the US National Academy of Science's Award in Mathematics, and the Shaw Prize. He was knighted in 2000.
In its announcement of the award the the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters said: "Andrew J Wiles is one of very few mathematicians - if not the only one - whose proof of a theorem has made international headline news.
"In 1994 he cracked Fermat's Last Theorem which, at the time, was the most famous and long-running unsolved problem in the subject's history.
http://i.imgur.com/zBABe3d.jpg
"Wiles' proof was not only the high point of his career - and an epochal moment for mathematics - but also the culmination of a remarkable personal journey that began three decades earlier."
The Abel Prize was created in 2002 and is named after Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel, who died in 1829.
Awarded annually, it was jointly won last year by John F Nash Jr, the US mathematician and economist who was the subject of the 2001 movie A Beautiful Mind, and Canadian-born mathematician Louis Nirenberg.
Previous British winners include Edinburgh University academic Sir Michael Atiyah, who shared the prize in 2004 with American Isadore Singer for their work on what is known as the Atiyah-Singer theorem.