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

Re:Wait what?

[kisak]

Actually, if you read the different articles, you would have seen that Lax has been working with problems important in physics. I don't know if physics is practial enough for you, but it is hard to deny the influence on modern technology from break-throughs in physics in the last century.

Here is Lax's advive to young mathematicians: "I heartily recommend that all young mathematicians try their skill in some branch of applied mathematics. It is a gold mine of deep problems whose solutions await conceptual as well as technical breakthroughs. It displays an enormous variety, to suit every style; it gives mathematicians a chance to be part of the larger scientific and technological enterprise. Good hunting!"

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.

Wiles?

[Alomex]

Question is, how much longer are they going to hold the award from Andrew Wiles of Fermat fame?

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.

Re:who cares?

[MC68000]

Probably a troll, but I'll bite.

There is actually very little mathematics that is not applied. Group theory is very useful for quantum mechanics, and the Lebesgue measure is useful for crystallography. You admit that PDEs may be somewhat of an exception, but even that somehwat is wrong. Most complex models in engineering, physics, economics, and even sociology involve PDEs. But that's not all. Finding exact (which rarely exist) and numerical solutions to PDEs requires not only applied math, but concepts like Sobolev spaces, operator theory, and so much more. Lax's achievement in PDEs is the concept of Lax pairs, which are extremely abstract and require function theory to understand.

In short, all mathematics is useful. Applied math is useful because it gives us insights into the material world, and abstract math gives us insights into both applied math and sometimes even the material world.

No

[bluGill]

Math is one of the few classes where you can learn something truly beautiful that is also useful. Few classes are more useful in day to day life. (reading, perhaps grammar)

Find a good math instructor. In grade school and somewhat in high school, teachers are people who hate math, and so they are unwilling to show you just how much fun it really is.