Russian genius solves million dollar problem but declines Fields medal
Dr Grigory Perelman, a Russian mathematician thought to have solved one of the toughest problems in mathematics, was announced as one of the winners of the prestigious Fields medal, the 'Nobel Prize' of mathematics, on 22 August. The Russian mathematician did not, however, arrive to accept his medal at an award ceremony in Madrid on 22 August, presided over by Spain's King Juan Carlos I. The event marked the opening of the International Congress of Mathematicians which brings together some 5,000 international mathematicians. Dr Perelman was offered the esteemed award 'for his contributions to geometry and his revolutionary insights into the analytical and geometric structure of the Ricci flow', according to the International Mathematical Union, which bestows the awards every four years at the International Congress of Mathematicians. The Ricci flow enabled him to prove the famous Poincaré conjecture. The Poincaré conjecture problem was first proposed by French mathematician Henri Poincaré in 1904. The problem concerns the geometry of multidimensional spaces. The Poincaré Conjecture was considered to be one of the most famous unresolved problems in topology and mathematics. A solution provides a better understanding of three-dimensional space, and gives insights into the shape of the Universe. It could be one of the major pillars of mathematics in the 21st century. In recognition of its importance, the Clay Mathematics Institute made it one of the seven Millennium Problems in 1999, offering a prize of one million US dollars for a solution. In 2003, Dr Perelman posted his proof of the conjecture on the Internet. While no peer-reviews have yet been published, there is a growing consensus among mathematicians that the Perelman proofs solve this mathematical riddle. 'Everyone understands the third paper, which together with the verified parts of the first two would seem to provide a proof of the Poincaré Conjecture, and would be enough for Perelman to receive the Clay Institute million-dollar prize,' said Vicente Miquel, Professor of Geometry and Topology at the University of Valencia. Fields medals were awarded to, and accepted by, Russian-born Andrei Okounkov from Princeton University, Australian-born Terence Tao from UCLA, and French national Wendelin Werner from University of Paris-Sud in Orsay. Prior to the award ceremony, many doubted whether Dr Perelman would appear should he win the prize. He had already turned down a prize from the European Mathematicians Society, and remains distant from the mathematics community.