What is the Abel Prize?
The Abel Prize is sometimes called the mathematician’s Nobel, and is awarded to individuals who have contributed significant work to the field of mathematics. The first Abel Prize was awarded in 2003 to Jean-Pierre Serre of France for his work on number theory, algebraic geometry, and topology, which is the study of geometric figures and the effects of bending and stretching. Mathematicians feel that the recognition given to the field of mathematics by the Abel Prize is long overdue, as the Nobel Prizes have been awarded for over one hundred years. The Abel Prize was originally supposed to begin in 1902, when King Oscar II of Sweden and Norway expressed an interest in creating a prize in mathematics equivalent to the Nobel. Niels Henrik Abel was a 19th century Norwegian mathematician born in 1902. Although he was only 26 when he died, Abel’s work was of immense value to the field. His work on group theory and algebra is still used in a variety of situations, and most math students lear
On January 1, 2002, the Niels Henrik Abel Memorial Fund was established to annually award the Abel Prize for outstanding scientific work in the field of mathematics. The Abel Prize was named in honor of Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel (1802-1829). Abel produced such notable work as a proof involving the impossibility of solving the quintic equation by radicals (what is now called the Abel-Ruffini theorem) and a theory involving elliptic, hyperelliptic and what is now called abelian functions. Many mathematical terms are based on his last name, such as abelian group, abelian category, abelian variety, and Abel transform. His life was cut tragically short by tuberculosis (TB). The Abel Prize is awarded by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters through an Abel Committee consisting of five mathematicians. It is presented by the King of Norway. The amount of money awarded is around one million U.S. dollars. The prize was created in part because the Nobel Prize does not inclu
