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Grigory Perelman Turns Down $1M Millennium Prize

Posted by kdawson on from the can't-buy-me-love dept.

Kleiba writes "After turning down the prestigious Field Medal in 2006 for his contributions to mathematics, the reclusive Russian mathematician Grigory Perelman announced yesterday that he is rejecting a $1 million Millennium Prize from the Clay Mathematics Institute for solving the Poincare conjecture."

15 of 226 comments (clear)

  1. Why by girlintraining · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yeah, and do you know why? Because this guy believes that most advancements in science are cooperative efforts, and that recognizing individuals for merely putting the last piece in the jigsaw puzzle is intellectually dishonest: It devalues the work of everyone else who contributed.

    --
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    1. Re:Why by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      He could just accept in and donate it to charity.

      The money already belongs to a charity.

    2. Re:Why by Crazy+Taco · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Because this guy believes that most advancements in science are cooperative efforts, and that recognizing individuals for merely putting the last piece in the jigsaw puzzle is intellectually dishonest: It devalues the work of everyone else who contributed.

      Cooperative efforts yes, but I disagree with the rest of your statement. The person who puts the last piece of the jigsaw puzzle together is the one who makes the work the rest did useful. So another guy pointed out the pathway? Yes, but he didn't solve the problem. His contributions may have been valuable, and he should be credited for what he did do, but starting something is not the same as finishing something. Starting something is not worth 1 million. Finishing something revolutionary is. Finding the answer that others, including the starter could not, is what make his work worth 1 million. And it doesn't devalue the work of those who's work he built on. It doesn't say they did nothing. It accurately values their contributions as good, but values his as the more revolutionary contribution, which it was.

      As the Clay institute even points out in the article, every mathematician follows in the work of others. Everyone does that. There's nothing to reward there. What not everyone does is tie all the pieces together into a revolutionary advance. THAT's why they want to award Perleman 1 million dollars and that's why they think he should accept it. And I agree, he should take the money as it is not a gift, but rather an earned reward for the hard, revolutionary work that he did.

      --
      Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it.
    3. Re:Why by unr3a1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I think it's pretty clear that the man is very humble and selfless. Since when is being these things considered to be abnormal? He should be honored and respected for his actions, not called abnormal.

    4. Re:Why by quadelirus · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I thought it was because he was angry with some well known profs who he had talked to about his proof method and they had pretty much shut him out when he was a grad student or postdoc or something, and that because these awards are for leaders of the mathematical community, and he feels ostracized by the community, he won't participate.

      That said, the dude is being supported by his mother--last I checked--which, if true, in my mind means he ought to take the money and give it to his mom if he doesn't want it.

    5. Re:Why by RyuuzakiTetsuya · · Score: 5, Informative

      Given the kind of money math researchers at the university level make, redistributing it to everyone who's contributed to his win would be donating it to charity.

      --
      Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
    6. Re:Why by jlp2097 · · Score: 5, Funny

      He should be honored and respected for his actions, not called abnormal.

      Yeah we should give him a prize or sth. Oh, wait...

  2. Re:Aid Society! by Rockoon · · Score: 5, Informative

    I was under the impression that he publicly stated why he wouldnt accept the money, and it was basically:

    "If I had that money then I would feel compelled to use it to do good charitable things, but what I really want to with my life is more math and as such, that money would be a burden"

    --
    "His name was James Damore."
  3. Re:Again? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    he's got 99 problems but the poincare conjecture aint one

  4. Millennium, not Millenium. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Millennium. Two Ns. From Latin "mille", thousand, and "annus", year. A thousand years.
    If you write it with only one N, it would be derived from mille and anus, which would be "a thousand assholes".

    1. Re:Millennium, not Millenium. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      If you write it with only one N, it would be derived from mille and anus, which would be "a thousand assholes".

      ...which, incidentally, is the prize for excellence in management.

  5. Re:Again? by quadelirus · · Score: 5, Informative

    No. Multiple awards. Field medal first, now millennium prize.

  6. because... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Taxes would be a bitch. It's better to not exchange money in the first place.

  7. Re:boo hoo... cry babies by Fnkmaster · · Score: 5, Insightful

    A bunch of people spent several years of their lives to validate that his solution was correct. The point is that those people wouldn't have bothered unless the source of the proposed solution was credible - because there are tons of crackpots who post all sorts of theories on the internet that aren't worth spending minutes let alone years of your life trying to validate or disprove.

  8. Perhaps a modest change to his M.O. would do - by RevWaldo · · Score: 5, Funny

    Narrator: Meanwhile, at the International Conference of Mathematics...

    (In a oak-walled conference room, about two dozen bearded and bespeckled men gathered around a long table, cluttered with papers, a large blackboard on the wall full of figures, cross-outs and erase marks. The man at the center of the table stands from his chair and wearily proclaims:)

    Conference Leader: Well, gentlemen, I fear a solution to the Riemann hypothesis eludes us once again...

    (Suddenly, a masked man bursts through the conference room doors.)

    All: It's the Lone Mathematician!

    LM: Gentlemen, I believe this is what you're looking for! (Slaps a paper on the desk. They all look down at it, then look up astonished)

    All: A solution to the Riemann hypothesis! BUT HOW!?

    CL (holding up the paper): So elegant and precise, and yet so simple! You're a man of true genius!

    LM: I'm merely standing on the shoulders of giants, gentlemen.

    (The Lone Mathematician gracefully leaps onto a nearby windowsill and steps out. They all run to the window and look down, seeing that he has jumped onto the back of a horse in the courtyard.)

    LM (riding off): Hi Ho Sliderule, Away!!

    CL: Who was that masked man? I wanted to thank him...

    .

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