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Fields Medals Awarded To 4 Mathematicians (nytimes.com)
Every four years, at an international gathering of mathematicians, the subject's youngest and brightest are honored with the Fields Medal, often described as the Nobel Prize of mathematics. The New York Times: This year's recipients, announced on Wednesday at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Rio de Janeiro, include one of the youngest ever: Peter Scholze, a professor of mathematics at the University of Bonn who is 30 years old. Two weeks ago, Peter Woit, a professor at Columbia University who blogs about mathematics and physics, was among those who anticipated that Dr. Scholze would receive the medal. Dr. Woit said Dr. Scholze was "by far the most talented arithmetic geometer of his generation." By custom, Fields medals are bestowed to mathematicians 40 years old or younger. That means Dr. Scholze would have still been eligible for another two rounds of medals. The medal, first awarded in 1936, was conceived by John Charles Fields, a Canadian mathematician. The youngest winner, Jean-Pierre Serre in 1954, was 27. The other Fields medalists this year are Caucher Birkar, 40, of the University of Cambridge in England; Alessio Figalli, 34, of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich; and Akshay Venkatesh, 36, of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and Stanford University in California. Peter Scholze's award cites "the revolution that he launched in arithmetic geometry," the study of shapes that arise from the rational-number solutions to polynomial equations (like xy3 + x2 = 1 or x2 â" y3z = 3). More about him here. As a mathematician, Caucher Birkar has helped bring order to the infinite variety of polynomial equations -- those equations that consist of different variables raised to various powers. No two equations are exactly alike, but Birkar has helped reveal that many can be neatly categorized into a small number of families. [As a reader pointed out, Birkar's award was stolen within minutes of him receiving it.] UPDATE (8/4/18): Organizers have announced they'll provide an identical replacement medal.
Once a classics student with no particular affinity for mathematics, Alessio Figalli has gone on to shake the venerable mathematical discipline of analysis, which concerns the properties of certain types of equations. Figalli's results have provided a refined mathematical understanding of everything from the shape of crystals to weather patterns, to the way ice melts in water. Akshay Venkatesh, a former prodigy who struggled with the genius stereotype, has won a Fields Medal for his "profound contributions to an exceptionally broad range of subjects in mathematics."
Once a classics student with no particular affinity for mathematics, Alessio Figalli has gone on to shake the venerable mathematical discipline of analysis, which concerns the properties of certain types of equations. Figalli's results have provided a refined mathematical understanding of everything from the shape of crystals to weather patterns, to the way ice melts in water. Akshay Venkatesh, a former prodigy who struggled with the genius stereotype, has won a Fields Medal for his "profound contributions to an exceptionally broad range of subjects in mathematics."
Oddly the Fields Medal given to Birkar was stolen after the ceremony. We looked everywhere for it, but never found it. If you see anything that looks like a Field Medal on eBay please let me know.
If only higher math was useful.
Just seems like a giant circle jerk.
If there's no doubt left that Tesla is a cult look at all the apologists celebrating the biggest loss in automotive history as "very good". Imagine if GM lost 700,000,000.00 in a quarter. I bet these ***SAME*** people would be calling it fraud, a scam, shut it down, etc.
3 value bflat sous-a-phone,
3 value bflat SOUSAPHONE!
almost as ugly as medium.com
I'm a genius mathematician-like that i did study a little of "economy" for my surviving environment under NWO.
My annual salary is $0. I'm wasting little my accumulated money from years ago.
I can't buy luxury things, as by example, an expensive computer.
If there's no doubt left that Tesla is a cult look at all the apologists celebrating the biggest loss in automotive history as "very good". Imagine if GM lost 700,000,000.00 in a quarter. I bet these ***SAME*** people would be calling it fraud, a scam, shut it down, etc.
Huh? In 2007, GM posted a loss of 38.7 billion dollars.
The following year they lost "only" 30.9 billion dollars. That is still forty times larger than the Tesla loss you are discussing.
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
Why can't non-mathematicians get a medal for once? Whaddayamean "mathematical achievement"? That just discriminates against non-mathematicians, I'm telling you!
the Fields Medal, often described as the Nobel Prize of mathematics
Actually, the Nobel Prize is the Medal in some Fields.
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
You can have it if you want it.
...does Mathematics face any unsolved quandary similar to the physics world and the hunt for the theory of everything?
Is there some identified, but unsolved mathematic challenge that promises to change the world?
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
Caucher Birkar was an Iranian Kurd who entered the UK as a refugee. You know, exactly the kind of person the xenophobes that gave us Brexit (and are ironically also dominating EU politics) would rather not let in.
Akshay Venkatesh was born in Delhi 2 years before his parents migrated to Australia, that other Commonwealth nation presently dominated by rabid anti-immigration policies. Gee, I wonder if he would still be let in today...
Looks like we need to expect a surge in scientific advancements in a decade or so coming from Canada, being the largest of the countries in the Western World that still have a welcoming attitude toward immigrants.
And don't give me "those are not the kind of immigrants we want to hold back". That falls in the same category as "I'm not a racist, why, I even have friends who are not white." To give just one counter-argument, there's no way anyone could have known that the 2-years-old Venkatesh would grow up to be a prodigy.
What is the difference if he was a math genius and did his work in Delhi or Australia? Why would it matter so much to you what country he was currently residing in? You sound like a nationalist.
I'm rather disappointed that Professor Viazovska didn't take a medal this year. Her career is such that she's a prime candidate - her solutions to the sphere packing problem for S8 and S24 are remarkably simple and probably open up the question for more general Sn - and it would have been fitting after the stunning loss of Maryam Mirzakhani this last year to cancer. I hope Professor Viazovska gets the medal in 2022.
Finding God in a Dog
Well, let's turn that around - if someone is going to be a genius somewhere, wouldn't you rather that they were a genius in your country, and teaching your country's students, so they can help develop your country's economy? I think most people a greedy enough to want this. I would argue that this constitutes a form of enlightened self-interest. I would further argue that xenophobia gets in the way of this enlightened self-interest. One need only look at how Nazi anti-Jewish policies contributed to the United States developing atomic weapons as an example.
Finding God in a Dog
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Canada, being the largest of the countries in the Western World that still have a welcoming attitude toward immigrants.
Of course it is. Canada is the largest country in the western world.
No, lets not turn that around. Why not just answer my question?
To more directly answer your question: if we exclude students and other academic talent from American/Australian/UK universities - which have for decades been the best place for academics to find a home - on account of their country of origin, then those universities suffer. Eventually, those best minds go elsewhere, and in this case, it wouldn't have been Delhi, but some other place with a larger wealth of talent in a country with better immigration policies. And then those universities will attract the best talent instead - eventually to include the brightest minds from the US, Australia, UK. Afterwards, the tendency of persons not to want to move away from a good thing, will mean that those bright minds settle there and contribute to those economies and technologies.
In short, we would see a brain drain - out of the US/UK/AU - into CAN, DE, FR. This is already starting to happen in some fields.
Finding God in a Dog
Why would it matter so much what country anyone resides in?
To me, it shouldn't, but I'm currently in a mood of aggravating those who think otherwise. Taste of their own medicine and all that. (I was going to write "give them some food for thought", but I've recently come to suspect they're incapable of that.)
>Why would it matter so much what country anyone resides in?
Because some turn out to have talents and you would want them to be in a country that fosters those talents, so for example they end up solving problems in mathematics, rather than growing up to be an illiterate gourd farmer. Illiterate gourd farmers are legitimate, but gourd farming can be constraining for the budding genius.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
Just the nibbers pad're .... just the nibbers. ISIS too and gaffots, simpering snowflake-sluts like you.
You didn't answer my question: why is it important what country they settle in? Is it more important for them to contribute to Australias economy, or the US economy or India's economy? That is very Nationalist of you.
Ah, I see. So you are saying there is some flawed about their country of origin, and they need to be welcomed to "a country that fosters those talents" instead. NOW I get what you guys are saying. So throwing open the borders is the solution here? Or would it make every country flawed like the countries they came from? It sounds like you think some countries are better than others in "fostering talents". I wonder why that is.
Totally. Throw open the borders. If freedom of trade in goods is good for economies and personal wealth, why is freedom of trade in labour not? Europe opened its borders internally and all the moaning ninnies said the sky would fall in and waves of immigrants would ruin the place. All it did was improve the economy, make people's lives easier and freer and make it possible for more diverse and better restaurants to exist.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
You didn't answer my question: why is it important what country they settle in? Is it more important for them to contribute to Australias economy, or the US economy or India's economy? That is very Nationalist of you.
From the perspective of humanity as a whole, it matters only that the brightest people get the resources they need to realize their full potential.
From the perspective of any one nation, smart people want all of the big brains to live and work in their country, which means they want a fairly open immigration policy. This is an approach that worked fantastically well for the US in the 20th century. Idiots prefer to harass foreign visitors and build walls, ensuring that the smart people from every other country stay away.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
Personally I have zero problem with individual people wanting to move to a country of their choice and build an earning and a life for themselves. In fact I moved to another country for a job and lived there for a while, improved my grasp of the language, and so on, and moved back for another job. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.
But I do have a problem with 1) people claiming to be asylum seekers, which entitles them to all sorts of benefits and even gets them preferred treatment over the locals, only to never get off the dole, never actually learn the language, and so on and so forth, and 2) lots and lots and lots and lots of them. I also have a problem with people bringing their headscarf-mandating ideology and expecting the locals to bow and scrape to them. Which they do, without fail, once there's enough of them in the country. Oh, and the rampant crime and getting away with it is getting old too. It's very clear that among those masses we're importing, there are a large number of profiteur deadbeats, and their misdeeds are being shuffled under the carpet wholesale.
But all of that can really only do damage to the country I'm in (which is NOT the USA, TYVM) because of completely weak leadership at both national and EU levels. I have a bigger problem with those sick fucks still. And then there's the "progressives" in and outside government that will go "THAT'S RACIST" at any sort of critique at all. "Look guys, this way just isn't working" 'YOU ARE A XENOPHOBE RACIST ISLAMOPHOBE HATER YOU XENOPHOBE RACIST ISLAMOPHOBE HATER YOU!!!!one!elebenty!1!' -- and so on. I have problems with our weak leadership and the idiot SJW intelligentsia too.
But like I said, someone coming here from wherever they came and obviously pulling their own weight and obviously doing their level best to fit in, hey, that's cool.
You are confusing immigration with invasion. If someone wants to be apart of another country, adopt that counties attitudes, values, and ideals and language, that should be encouraged. When Werner von braun came to the USA and helped build the Saturn V, he was not waving the NAZI flag and loudly calling for the extermination of USAian sovreighnty. When the most important Jewish refugees came to the USA and made up the backbone of the Manhatten project, they were not shitting on the USA the whole time.
This new generation of so called immigrants is not coming to be apart of the USA, they are coming to conquer if. We have "immigrants" who wave the Mexican flag, speak Spanish, and call for the elimination of USAian control over its borders. That is not immigration. I feel a similar thing is happening in Europe. Are the poor disadvantaged immigrants happy and proud to be apart of their new country? Or are they demanding that their new country addopt Islam, and speak a different language, and accept the way they dress.
Dont be so kind, trusting, and generous that people take advabtage of you generosity and abuse you. This is essentially what is happening with the immigration debate.
Human nature is such that it builds walls. Would you throw open your doors to your house? Animals and people are territorial. It is an evolutionary adaptation to ensure the survival of the tribe or pack.
Calling for open borders is working against millions of years of evolution. Enlightened liberal societies with lax immigration policies become subsumed by tribes with less enlightened attitudes.
The civilized virtues are useless unless a society is also in touch with the barbarian virtues
... if /. is not able to render mathematical symbols like in the summary.
Why do you hate freedom? Are you a North Korean dictator?
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.