Monday, March 22, 2010

Poincare Conjecture

The Fields Medal is the top honor in mathematics. It is as prestigious as the Nobel Prize; there is no Nobel Prize for mathematics. Here is a list of the winners of the Fields Medal.

I was intrigued by this short story in the weekend NYTimes about Dr Grigori Perelman.

Dr. Perelman was awarded the Fields Medal in 2006, but declined to accept the award.

Now he has been named the winner of the Clay Prize. He is the first person to be awarded a Clay Prize; they were established a decade ago but nobody has won one before. Dr. Perelman's Clay Prize, like the Fields Medal before, is for his work in solving the Poincare Conjecture.

Where is Grischa now? Will he come to Paris on June 8th (Dr. Carlson says maybe)? Henri Poincare says:

Thought is only a flash in the middle of a long night, but the flash that means everything.

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