Peter Lax wins Abel Prize

otisaardvark writes "The prestigious Abel Prize, awarded annually for lifetime contributions to mathematics, has been awarded to Peter Lax [pdf]. Professor Lax, born in Hungary and currently at New York University, has made profound contributions to the theory of partial differential equations, most famously his reformulation of a large class of important PDES (so-called "integrable systems") in terms of Lax pairs of coupled, simplified equations. Read a summary of his achievements here [pdf]."

Comments

The Abel Prize

[kisak]

The Abel Prize is named after the brilliant Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel who died at the age of 26, after living his short life with little money and little support. It is quite amazing that at such young age Abel was able to produce results that put a lasting mark on modern mathematics. Another of the "young dead" in the history of mathematics is Galois, who died at the age of 21 and is remembered for results that expanded on earlier work of Abel. Because of these two and also many other mathematicians who did their best work at very young age, math has got the reputation of being the young man's science.

The Abel prize was introduced as a sort of "Nobel Prize of math" where people are rewarded for results and achievements that have shown themselves to be of lasting value in the field. Alfred Nobel did not want a Nobel Prize in math since he himself saw little scientific value of math! The most prestigious prize in math before the Abel came into being is the Fields medal, but this prize is only given to younger mathematicians (belove the age of 40) that has made break-through results and show promise for the future. The Fields medal is handed out every 4 years while the Abel is handed out every year (first prize was handed out in 2003).

It would have been ironic for Abel if he were to know that such a huge money prize is to be given out in his name, when his whole life he had to live in poverty and fight to get time and money to do his scientific work. The irony of Abel's life is also that Abel himself finally got a professorship in Berlin; but too late, the letter was sent to him two days after his death.

Re:The Abel Prize

[Anonymous Coward]

Alfred Nobel did not want a Nobel Prize in math, not because he didn't see value in it (the 19th century achievements in physics and chemistry for which he created prizes showed that math had value), but because he hated mathematicians. His wife ran off with a mathematician and ever after he cursed mathematicians.

Re:The Abel Prize

[Anonymous Coward]

Wrong. Nobel never married. He was a practical man and all his prizes are awarded for the greatest benefit to mankind (which might be questionable for mathematics). This is why an experiment discovering deuterium or the neutron will receive a prize almost immediately while something more abstract may never receive the prize. Einstein didn't receive the prize specifically for the general theory of relativity, arguably the greatest scientific theory of our time. He won it for the photoelectric effect and his theoretical services to physics (which encompasses many things for a man like Einstein). On a similar note, Hawking hasn't (and probably will never) received the Nobel Prize in Physics.

It should also be noted that even if Nobel was inclined to give a math prize ignoring his perceived impractability of it, there was a large competing prize given away yearly by the King of Sweden. If Alfred Nobel realized how significant his prize would become (becoming the de facto greatest prize of many science fields), he might have taken away the specific praticality aspects and added a math prize (and perhaps other prizes as well--I'd like a Nobel Prize in Geology!).

Re:Wait what?

[mangu]

obscure concepts few people have practical application for

Lax's work may seem obscure, but it has practical applications that are very relevant for many people. Example: simulations in 3d computer games. Look here for more details.

Re:Wiles?

[kisak]

I think the Abel Committee is obliged to also honour applied mathematicians, which is one reason Lax was chosen this year. The previous winners, Atiyah and Singer and Serre were all pure mathematicians (like Wiles is).

Andrew Wiles will probably get the prize, but since the prize is very new, there are many important mathematicians to chose from. And even though Wiles is maybe the best known living mathematician to the general public (because of his solution of Fermat's theorem), among mathematicians Wiles is not consider the most dominant mathematician alive today (Serre, for instant, was generally seen as the natural choice for the first prize). Some of the possible worthy winners are also old and will maybe for this reason get the prize before Wiles which is still young and healthy.