Mathematics has turned into an unusually lucrative profession for Maxim Kontsevich.
First, Kontsevich, 49, who works at the Institute of Advanced Scientific Studies outside Paris, won the 2012 Shaw Prize in Mathematical Sciences and its accompanying US$1 million award. Then a couple of months later, he was among nine people who received a new physics prize and US$3 million each from Yuri Milner, a Russian who dropped out of graduate studies in physics and became a successful investor in Internet companies like Facebook.
A few weeks ago, the French-Russian mathematician heard from Milner again, who told him that he was one of five inaugural winners of the Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics, which also comes with US$3 million financed by Milner and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
“I was a bit embarrassed, I have to say,” Kontsevich said.
“He’s a well-deserving individual. He really sits in the middle between physics and mathematics, and what he’s rewarded for now is pure mathematics as opposed to physics. His work here is really very different from what he got his other prize for,” Milner said.
The citation notes a wide swath of mathematical fields where Kontsevich repeatedly bumped into unexpected connections. For example, about 15 years ago, he collaborated on what looks like a simple procedure called interval exchange transformations, which is essentially like taking a piece of rope, cutting it into pieces and shuffling them together in a different order.
The mathematics of cutting and reshuffling turns out to be complex, and recently reappeared in a new area of abstract algebra used in some theoretical physics models, which Kontsevich said “was a really great surprise.”
The Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics is Milner’s latest effort in his crusade to make science lucrative and cool in a society that more often celebrates athletes, entertainers, politicians and business tycoons.
“It is really out of balance,” he said. “This is really to emphasize the importance of fundamental science in our world today.”
A year after establishing the physics prize, Milner orchestrated a similar prize for life sciences, attracting sponsorship from the families of Zuckerberg, Google cofounder Sergey Brin and Jack Ma (馬雲), who established Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba.
The other winners of the math prize are Simon Donaldson, 56, of Stony Brook University in New York and Imperial College London; Jacob Lurie, 36, of Harvard University; Terence Tao, 38, of the University of California, Los Angeles; and Richard Taylor, 52, of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey.
Donaldson’s accomplishments include using a mathematical theory originally developed for particle physics to study and classify possible shapes of four-dimensional space. Lurie was cited for cutting-edge advances in esoteric fields like “higher category theory” and “derived algebraic geometry.”
Tao has worked on fundamental problems involving prime numbers and examined the equations of fluid flow, seeing if there might be solutions with black hole-like singularities where the fluid velocity turns infinite. Taylor, who first became known for helping fill a gap in the proof of Fermat’s Last Theorem, has mapped out unexpected connections between algebra and symmetries in geometry.
Three of the five winners — Donaldson, Kontsevich and Tao — are recipients of the Fields Medal, probably the best known of mathematics awards. Tao has also received a MacArthur “genius” grant of U$500,000.
Tao said that when Milner came to his office at the University of California in January, the Russian had already announced that he would establish the math prizes and Tao thought he wanted advice on whom to honor. Instead, Milner told him one award was going to him.
Tao tried to talk Milner out of it and suggested that more prizes of smaller amounts might be more effective in supporting mathematics.
“The size of the award, I think it’s ridiculous,” Tao said. “I didn’t feel I was the most qualified for this prize,” but added: “It’s his money. He can do whatever he wants with it.”
Tao said he might use some of the prize money to help set up open-access mathematics journals, which would be available free to anyone, or for large-scale collaborative online efforts to solve important problems.
The other winners said they also intended to use some of the money to help support other mathematicians, except for Donaldson, who said: “I haven’t gotten as far as thinking about that.”
Milner said that going forward, eight Breakthrough Prizes will be awarded each year: one in mathematics, one in physics and six in the life sciences, for a total payout of US$24 million. Past winners serve as committee members to choose future recipients.
Anyone can make a nomination for next year’s awards at breakthroughprize.org before the deadline on Monday.
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