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Serre Receives Abel Prize

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By Emil Volcheck
Posted Fri Apr 25, 2003 at 05:11:04 AM PDT

New Prize in Mathematics Goes to Professor Emeritus at College of France

The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters named Jean-Pierre Serre, a professor emeritus at the College of France, in Paris, as the first winner of the Abel Prize in mathematics.

Mr. Serre received the prize, which carries a cash award of $800,000, "for playing a key role in shaping the modern form of many parts of mathematics, including topology, algebraic geometry and number theory," according to an announcement from the academy.

The prize adds to an already extensive list of honors for Mr. Serre, who received the Fields Medal in 1954, the Prix Gaston Julia in 1970, the Balzan Prize in 1985, the Steele Prize in 1995, and the Wolf Prize in 2000.

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Serre Receives Abel Prize | 2 comments (2 topical, 0 hidden)

[new] More info on The Abel Prize (none / 0) (#1)
by jvano on Thu May 01, 2003 at 11:19:45 AM PDT

can be found here.

[new] This first prize must be a joke ! (none / 0) (#2)
by Anonymous Hero on Thu May 15, 2003 at 12:39:26 PM PDT

The two commissions involved in choosing the first recipient of the Abel prize have succeeded in their apparent goal: making it equal or worse to a Nobel prize in Mathematics, with all the pompous ridicule of these establishment prizes. Jean-Pierre Serre is a great mathematician (although certainly not a great teacher), but what is the point of awarding him a new prize of this amount, after the Fields Medal, and numerous other prizes and awards? Just to be sure that the message is clear: Abel was a young, original mathematician, opening new fields of mathematics and new methods of looking to mathematics, who died ill and young, by lack of support and resources, having a spent considerable energy to get some stable position and recognition. So it is logical to award the prize bearing its name to an established mathematician, retired (with a solid government pension), having several times declared he was no more active in mathematics (he is still editing older mathematician works), living in a developed country, without material difficulties, having worked in central and mainstream fields of mathematics. It was too difficult to find a young or still active mathematician, in a less privileged country, making "different" mathematics? Apparently so. The Fields medal may have demerits. At least the 40 year barrier forces its commission to think a little about who it chooses. It can be seen as a very strong encouragement and trust for the awardee to go on doing valuable mathematics. Let's hope that the second Abel prize will correct this very bad impression.

Serre Receives Abel Prize | 2 comments (2 topical, 0 hidden)

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