Reclusive Genius Ponders $1 Million Math Prize
03-24-2010, 10:39 PM
A reclusive Russian genius is in deep thought about whether he'll accept the $1 million he won for cracking one of the world's most difficult math problems.
The Clay Mathematics Institute of Cambridge, Mass., announced last week that Grigoriy Perelman of St. Petersburg, Russia, had won the first Millennium Prize for solving the Poincaré conjecture.
The problem, first posed in 1904 by the French mathematician Henri Poincaré, is about the geometry of three-dimensional shapes. Poincaré proposed a test for recognizing when a shape is a three-dimensional sphere, the most perfect and simplest of all shapes.
While many others tried and failed, Perelman, 43, proved that the conjecture was correct, relying on an existing theory and solving the problem with his own ideas.
The Millennium Prize, established in 2000 by the independent institute, recognizes outstanding intellectual achievement.
"By golly this certainly is it," James Carlson, the institute's president, told AOL News today. "It's not every day a problem open for 99 years has been solved."
Carlson called Perelman last week to tell him he had won.
"He replied that he needed to think about it," Carlson said. "Whether he accepts the money -- that's in his hands at the moment."
"I have not yet made a decision," Perelman said, according to a recording of a phone call with him posted by a Russian Web site, ABC News reported Tuesday.
Carlson said he wasn't surprised by Perelman's indecision, noting that the Russian did not accept the prestigious Fields Medal, often compared to math's Nobel Prize, in 2006. Perelman told the Guardian at the time: "I do not think anything that I say can be of the slightest public interest."
"He's a very unusual person," Carlson said. "He is quite reticent and values his privacy and I think is immune to the hoopla around these things."
The institute established the prize with seven problems, the Poincaré conjecture among them, and each one is worth $1 million. The institute says the problems "were conceived to record some of the most difficult problems with which mathematicians were grappling at the turn of the second millennium."
Perelman posted his work on the Internet in 2002 and 2003. By 2007, experts verified it, Carlson said.
Perelman reportedly lives with his mother and sister in St. Petersburg. Media reports said he refused to talk to reporters outside his home.
Perelman was a fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1994 to 1996. He returned to Russia for a research position at St. Petersburg's Steklov Institute of Mathematics but resigned his position, Carlson said.
A children's charity in St. Petersburg, The Warm Home, wrote an open letter to Perelman, asking him to donate the money to Russian charities, ABC News reported.
"Unfortunately, unlike in the case of mathematical problems, no universal approach can be found toward solving human problems. Each suffering child and each mother entangled in circumstances of her life could receive help," the chairwoman of the charity wrote, according to ABC.
And Communist activists in St. Petersburg proposed to use the prize money to build a research facility and support the Lenin Mausoleum in Moscow.
"We are willing to explain to him that, if he does not take the money, it will be spent on American scientists working on nuclear weapons," the leader of the St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region Communists told the Interfax news agency, ABC said.
The Clay Mathematics Institute of Cambridge, Mass., announced last week that Grigoriy Perelman of St. Petersburg, Russia, had won the first Millennium Prize for solving the Poincaré conjecture.
The problem, first posed in 1904 by the French mathematician Henri Poincaré, is about the geometry of three-dimensional shapes. Poincaré proposed a test for recognizing when a shape is a three-dimensional sphere, the most perfect and simplest of all shapes.
While many others tried and failed, Perelman, 43, proved that the conjecture was correct, relying on an existing theory and solving the problem with his own ideas.
The Millennium Prize, established in 2000 by the independent institute, recognizes outstanding intellectual achievement.
"By golly this certainly is it," James Carlson, the institute's president, told AOL News today. "It's not every day a problem open for 99 years has been solved."
Carlson called Perelman last week to tell him he had won.
"He replied that he needed to think about it," Carlson said. "Whether he accepts the money -- that's in his hands at the moment."
"I have not yet made a decision," Perelman said, according to a recording of a phone call with him posted by a Russian Web site, ABC News reported Tuesday.
Carlson said he wasn't surprised by Perelman's indecision, noting that the Russian did not accept the prestigious Fields Medal, often compared to math's Nobel Prize, in 2006. Perelman told the Guardian at the time: "I do not think anything that I say can be of the slightest public interest."
"He's a very unusual person," Carlson said. "He is quite reticent and values his privacy and I think is immune to the hoopla around these things."
The institute established the prize with seven problems, the Poincaré conjecture among them, and each one is worth $1 million. The institute says the problems "were conceived to record some of the most difficult problems with which mathematicians were grappling at the turn of the second millennium."
Perelman posted his work on the Internet in 2002 and 2003. By 2007, experts verified it, Carlson said.
Perelman reportedly lives with his mother and sister in St. Petersburg. Media reports said he refused to talk to reporters outside his home.
Perelman was a fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1994 to 1996. He returned to Russia for a research position at St. Petersburg's Steklov Institute of Mathematics but resigned his position, Carlson said.
A children's charity in St. Petersburg, The Warm Home, wrote an open letter to Perelman, asking him to donate the money to Russian charities, ABC News reported.
"Unfortunately, unlike in the case of mathematical problems, no universal approach can be found toward solving human problems. Each suffering child and each mother entangled in circumstances of her life could receive help," the chairwoman of the charity wrote, according to ABC.
And Communist activists in St. Petersburg proposed to use the prize money to build a research facility and support the Lenin Mausoleum in Moscow.
"We are willing to explain to him that, if he does not take the money, it will be spent on American scientists working on nuclear weapons," the leader of the St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region Communists told the Interfax news agency, ABC said.
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