Abel Prize
mathematics award
Abel Prize, award granted annually for research in mathematics, in commemoration of the brilliant 19th-century Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel. The Niels Henrik Abel Memorial Fund was established on Jan. 1, 2002, and it is administered by the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research. The main purpose of the fund is to award an international prize for “outstanding scientific work in the field of mathematics.” The prize is also intended to help raise the status of mathematics in society and to stimulate the interest of young people in mathematics. Responsibility for the Abel Prize and for other uses of the funds lies with the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. The fund also supports one or two Abel Symposia per year on various branches of mathematics, and in 2005 the fund created the Bernt Michael Holmboe Memorial Prize for the promotion of excellence in teaching mathematics, in honour of Abel’s own mathematics teacher.
As the 100th anniversary of Abel’s birth approached in 1902, plans for creating a prize in Abel’s name had been promoted by the Norwegian mathematician Sophus Lie, but he died in 1899, and the impetus faded with him. It was revived in 1902 by King Oscar II, who organized many prizes during his reign, including one in the 1880s on celestial mechanics that was won by the French mathematician Henri Poincaré. The demise of the union between Sweden and Norway, and the resulting loss of revenue, ended efforts to establish an annual mathematics prize. Abel’s status in Norway remained high, though, and, when plans for a prize were revived in 2000—which the International Mathematical Union had designated the World Mathematical Year—they met with widespread acceptance. The prize, which is worth about $1 million, was first awarded in 2003 to the French mathematician Jean-Pierre Serre.
The winners of the Abel Prize are listed chronologically below.
year
name
birthplace
primary research
2003
Jean-Pierre Serre
Bages, France
algebraic topology
2004
Michael Atiyah
London, Eng.
topology
2004
Isadore Singer
Detroit, Mich., U.S.
topology
2005
Peter Lax
Budapest, Hung.
partial differential equations
2006
Lennart Carleson
Stockholm, Swed.
dynamical systems
2007
S.R. Srinivasa Varadhan
Madras, India
probability theory
2008
Jacques Tits
Uccle, Belg.
group theory
2008
John Griggs Thompson
Ottawa, Kan., U.S.
group theory
2009
Mikhail Gromov
Boksitogorsk, Russia, U.S.S.R.
geometry
2010
John Tate
Minneapolis, Minn., U.S.
number theory
2011
John Willard Milnor
Orange, N.J., U.S.
differential topology
2012
Endre Szemerédi
Budapest, Hung.
discrete mathematics
2013
Pierre René Deligne
Brussels, Belg.
algebraic geometry
2014
Yakov Sinai
Moscow, Russia, U.S.S.R.
chaos theory
2015
John F. Nash, Jr.
Bluefield, W.Va., U.S.
partial differential equations
2015
Louis Nirenberg
Hamilton, Ont., Can.
partial differential equations
2016
Andrew John Wiles
Cambridge, Eng.
number theory
2017
Yves Meyer
France
wavelet theory
2018
Robert P. Langlands
New Westminster, B.C., Can.
number theory/representation theory
2019
Karen Uhlenbeck
Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.
geometric partial differential equations/gauge theory/integrable systems
2020
Hillel Furstenberg
Berlin, Ger.
probability theory, dynamical systems
2020
Gregory Margulis
Moscow, Russia
probability theory, dynamical systems
2021
László Lovász
Budapest, Hungary
theoretical computer science, discrete mathematics
Avi Wigderson
Haifa, Israel
theoretical computer science, discrete mathematics
2022
Dennis Sullivan
Port Huron, Mich., U.S.
topology
What's Your Reaction?