Russian refuses math's highest honor

[Evo]

Rather sad if it's true.

By DANIEL WOOLLS, Associated Press Writer
Tue Aug 22, 6:20 PM ET

MADRID, Spain - A reclusive Russian won the math world's highest honor Tuesday for solving a problem that has stumped some of the discipline's greatest minds for a century — but he refused the award.

Grigory Perelman, a 40-year-old native of St. Petersburg, won a Fields Medal — often described as math's equivalent of the Nobel prize — for a breakthrough in the study of shapes that experts say might help scientists figure out the shape of the universe.

John Ball, president of the International Mathematical Union, said that he had urged Perelman to accept the medal, but Perelman said he felt isolated from the mathematics community and "does not want to be seen as its figurehead." Ball offered no further details of the conversation.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060822/ap_on_re_eu/spain_math_genius

more information on what's happened

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grigori_Perelman

 

[Gokul43201]

There's another Grisha thread running about somewhere in the Math section.

Edit: here it is: https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=129411

 

[Cyrus]

I can smell him just sitting here looking at his picture on a screen...

 

[Evo]

It's says he appears to have given up on math, is unemployed, and has moved in with his mother living on her small stipend.

 

[Schrodinger's Dog]

It's says he appears to have given up on math, is unemployed, and has moved in with his mother living on her small stipend.

To be fair that was in 2003, and since he's gone on to further prove his genius since then? I don't think he'll fade into obscurity, he just seems like a perfect mathematician to me, quietly working away, without need for plaudits, or money. Without need to tour and be egotistical, just constantly moving on to pastures more complex, I guess he just want's to solve the difficult problems and leave his free time to working on maths not working on PR.

Perhaps one of the few subjects where an ego and greed gets in the way of the finer points of your work, after all you don't need to prove anything but the maths? Spend all your time sitting in a world of mathematical possibilities, not spending it with the wider community, after all he did well without them, his time is more important maybe?

 

[Mickey]

It's says he appears to have given up on math, is unemployed, and has moved in with his mother living on her small stipend.

I read somewhere else that living with your parents is not out of the ordinary for orthodox Jews.

I expect him to come around sooner or later and accept the awards and prizes. Right now he's still harboring hurt from losing his former position. Perhaps he's waiting for the people that fired him to come around and say they were wrong.

 

[fourier jr]

"we mathematicians are all a bit crazy" -- paul erdos

as a Canadian (like fields) i would never turn down a fields medal. no Canadian has won yet.

 

[JasonRox]

"we mathematicians are all a bit crazy" -- paul erdos

as a Canadian (like fields) i would never turn down a fields medal. no Canadian has won yet.

If I were negleted by the mathematics community, I wouldn't accept period.

I'm a Canadian too.

 

[Cyrus]

I wonder how he became "Isolated from the mathematics community" and who said he would become its "figurehead"?

 

[Rach3]

Truly inspired.

 

[scott1]

He is going to regret this...

...How can a mathmatican be that stupid?

 

[franznietzsche]

He is going to regret this...

...How can a mathmatican be that stupid?

I dunno. You do realize that Feynman and Dirac both wanted to refuse their nobel prizes at first right?

 

[scott1]

You do realize that Feynman and Dirac both wanted to refuse their nobel prizes at first right?

Didn't know that.
Can you post a link about that?

 

[moose]

Quoting Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!

The phone rings again: "Professor Feynman, have you heard..."
(In a disappointed voice) "Yeah."
Then I began to think, "How can I turn this all off? I don't want any of this!" So the first thing was to take the telephone off the hook, because calls were coming one right after the other. I tried to go back to sleep, but found it was impossible.
I went down to the study to think: What am I going to do? Maybe I won't accept the Prize. What would happen then? Maybe that's impossible.
I put the receiver back on the hook and the phone rang right away. It was a guy from Time magazine. I said to him, "Listen, I've got a problem, so I want this off the record. I don't know how to get out of this thing. Is there some way not to accept the Prize?"
He said, "I'm afraid, sir, that there isn't any way you can do it without making more of a fuss than if you leave it alone."

I suppose that Feynman grew to dislike the media and wanted people to look at him as a physicist(while doing physics), and not as a nobel laureate. This is similar to how whenever he did anything not relating to physics, he went out of his way to make sure people didn't know he was a physicist.

Sorry to go off topic here :shy:

Crazy though, the medal is only awarded every four years... All that was important to him was proving the theorem...

EDIT: With his monetary prize from the Clay Mathematics Institute, he could have put it towards charity/donated it to his university or something.

 

[Knavish]

Feynman found the ordeal to be silly and tedious, but really had no serious intention of refusing to accept the prize. Furthermore, I remember reading that he, long before he actually received the prize, eagerly perused magazines to see if he had been chosen as a candidate for it.

I expect him to come around sooner or later and accept the awards and prizes. Right now he's still harboring hurt from losing his former position. Perhaps he's waiting for the people that fired him to come around and say they were wrong.

He has refused prizes in the past. He doesn't care about recognition. I would say his rejection merely furthered his contempt for the human affairs in math. Leave him alone. Let him do what he wants.

 

[JasonRox]

Quoting Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!

I suppose that Feynman grew to dislike the media and wanted people to look at him as a physicist(while doing physics), and not as a nobel laureate. This is similar to how whenever he did anything not relating to physics, he went out of his way to make sure people didn't know he was a physicist.

Sorry to go off topic here :shy:

Crazy though, the medal is only awarded every four years... All that was important to him was proving the theorem...

He always hated awards and "high" status clubs.

He said it all started when he was really young and they had this popular club in school. He wanted to be in it really bad, and one day he got in. When he went to a meeting, all they talked about who should be in next and who shouldn't join. He thought it would be all fun, but as it turns out, it wasn't and it was all about looking cool. Ever since then, he said that's how he felt about all the clubs. He also said (I believe/think) that things haven't changed much as he got older because even then that's all they did in "cool" clubs.

 

[Knavish]

i.e., if he doesn't want publicity, the least we can do is not give him any. This is all he asks for in return. Leave the man alone.

 

[PerennialII]

Freaks make the best "geeks". He seems to have his heart tuned about right.

 

[marlon]

I can smell him just sitting here looking at his picture on a screen...

you are a linguistic virtuoso...you know that ?


To bad you cannot earn big prize money with that.

marlon

 

[Molydood]

it is a bit of a paradox though isn't it; the whole process of being told you are good at something by a group of people effectively less great than you. You could argue that the prize winner is the only one really qualified to comment on the greatness his work

I dunno, I'm with Feynman and Co. on this one, way to go I say.

Martin

 

[Gokul43201]

it is a bit of a paradox though isn't it; the whole process of being told you are good at something by a group of people effectively less great than you. You could argue that the prize winner is the only one really qualified to comment on the greatness his work

He refused the European Prize a couple of years ago for exactly this reason - he considered the panel underqualified to judge him.

 

[fourier jr]

I wonder how he became "Isolated from the mathematics community" and who said he would become its "figurehead"?

If I were negleted by the mathematics community, I wouldn't accept period.

I'm a Canadian too.

isolated BY the math community & isolated FROM the math community mean two different things imo. isolated BY means that he was "voted off the island" (or neglected) for some reason & isolated FROM means his isolation could be self-imposed. judging by his comments i think his isolation is self-imposed; he doesn't like the kind of attention that being a fields medalist would bring.

 

[marlon]

He refused the European Prize a couple of years ago for exactly this reason - he considered the panel underqualified to judge him.

This is a great guy. I like him. At least he is being very honest and straighforeward about it.


marlon

 

[selfAdjoint]

I think it might be instructive to compare/contrast Perelman to two other striking mathemetical personalities: Grothendieck and Erdos.

Erdos lived with his mother in Hungary (they were Hungarian Jews) when he wasn't travelling, and liked to write papers with junior co-authors from around the world (hence the famous "Erdos number). But he had, I believe, contempt for "organized mathematics. Politically he might have been called an extreme left-wing libertarian; practically an anarchist. No government was any good.

Grothendieck is one of the great mathematicians of the twentieth century. Like Perelman he had disappointing experiences with mathematical powers-that-be when young, which led him to relject honors later in life. He also rejected various organizations which had military funding. His parents were a German woman and a Russian Jewish father; they were reds who fought in the Spanish Civil was (on the Republican side, of course), and Grothendieck's father died in the nazi death camps. He and his mother (Grothendieck is her family name) spent the early post war years in French refugee camps. Grothendieck was extremely left-wing himself. For the last twenty years Grothendieck has been in seclusion, even more so than Perlman, and there are only unsecured rumors of where he is or what he is doing.

There seems to be a pattern here.

 

[JasonRox]

Erdos lived with his mother in Hungary (they were Hungarian Jews) when he wasn't travelling, and liked to write papers with junior co-authors from around the world (hence the famous "Erdos number). But he had, I believe, contempt for "organized mathematics. Politically he might have been called an extreme left-wing libertarian; practically an anarchist. No government was any good.

I heard that Erdos always asked young ones about what they were up to. Then if he liked it, he would want to join in. Some young ones didn't like it and said no, but he refused and forced his way into it.

I think that's flat out rude because these young juniors want to write papers under their own name and gain a reputation. They started the work, so why have some guy jump right in the middle of it and have him listed too.

Sure, it can be an honour, but don't prey on vulnerable people. In my opinion, that sounds like what he did. I would need to read more into it.

I think I read this in... "I want to be a Mathematician" by Paul Halmos.

 

[Lisa!]

He is going to regret this...

...How can a mathmatican be that stupid?

Who knows? Perhaps that's the stupid of us for not understanding him!

 

[Pythagorean]

I always thought Feynman was kind of an arrogant attention whore, and that's why he made a fuss about getting rewards, like girls who are always "*****ing" (or are they bragging?) about boys being all over them.

Anyway, not to discredit Feynman, but how can you help but be arrogant if you're an intelligent peson with the last name "fine man".

 

[franznietzsche]

I always thought Feynman was kind of an arrogant attention whore, and that's why he made a fuss about getting rewards, like girls who are always "*****ing" (or are they bragging?) about boys being all over them.

Anyway, not to discredit Feynman, but how can you help but be arrogant if you're an intelligent peson with the last name "fine man".

Wait, because he wanted to refuse it to avoid getting attention? Huh?

 

[heman]

This article is much detailed and comprehensive...

“He didn’t need any help,” Gromov said. “He likes to be alone. He reminds me of Newton—this obsession with an idea, working by yourself, the disregard for other people’s opinion. Newton was more obnoxious. Perelman is nicer, but very obsessed.”

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060828fa_fact2

 

[shmoe]

Wait, because he wanted to refuse it to avoid getting attention? Huh?

I don't know much aout Feynman, but declining or even hinting at declining an award like Nobel or Fields is sure to get you extra attention. The list of winners of these awards is very small. The list of people who have declined even smaller, Perleman the only for the Fields, 2 by choice, 4 forced for Nobel:

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/nobelprize_facts.html

How many people have now heard of Perelman? How many have heard of Okounkov, Tao, or Werner? I don't know how much of a lasting effect this will be though and I wouldn't say this was Perelman's intention.

It will be interesting to see what he does if he's offered the Clay prize (or a portion of it).

 

[Astronuc]

Mathematician Declines Top Prize
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5686700
by David Kestenbaum

Morning Edition, August 22, 2006 · A reclusive Russian named Grigory Perelman has puzzled the world of mathematicians. On Tuesday, Perelman won a coveted Fields Medal, an award given every four years by the International Mathematical Union for exceptional achievement in math.

But Perelman didn't show up to claim the award, and has said he doesn't want it. He told a British newspaper last week, "I do not think anything that I say can be of the slightest public interest."

Perelman is credited with helping solve the Poincare Conjecture -- a famous math problem about the shapes of space that was first posed by Henri Poincare in 1904.

A separate $1-million dollar prize for solving the conjecture is still up in the air. A published proof must stand for two years before being eligible.

A COMPLETE PROOF OF THE POINCARÉ AND
GEOMETRIZATION CONJECTURES – APPLICATION OF THE
HAMILTON-PERELMAN THEORY OF THE RICCI FLOW
http://www.intlpress.com/AJM/p/2006/10_2/AJM-10-2-165-492.pdf
(save target as)

 

[selfAdjoint]

All the attention on Feynman by the public didn't come until "Surely You're Joking..." came out, and that was when he was already sick with the cancer that eventually killed him. And he didn't initiate the project that became that book, his friend and coauthor did. The people he worked with liked him: "Dirac, but this time human" was one appraisal.

 

[FrogPad]

A COMPLETE PROOF OF THE POINCARÉ AND
GEOMETRIZATION CONJECTURES – APPLICATION OF THE
HAMILTON-PERELMAN THEORY OF THE RICCI FLOW
http://www.intlpress.com/AJM/p/2006/10_2/AJM-10-2-165-492.pdf
(save target as)

That was an easy read

 

[GCT]

Perelman declines the Fields Medal

"He has sort of alienated himself from the maths community. He has become disillusioned with mathematics, which is quite sad. He's not interested in money. The big prize for him is proving his theorem."


Professor Marcus du Sautoy of Oxford University


Hey, if one can provide such a vast prosocial contribution, within the confines of a room, obsessed with the task of such an exploration, if your mind is all that you need for such an adventure, if his genius suffices for such a lifestyle...let him be!


"According to a recent interview, Perelman is currently jobless, living with his mother in St Petersburg, and subsisting on her modest pension."


Then again, ~ $14,000 doesn't seem so bad, neither does the prestige "Nobel Prize in Mathematics" which basically guarantees a stable future career, green pasteurs and all, constant supply of "milk and honey." A financial dream come true for a mathematician. You've spent a good part of your life solving a grand scale puzzle, why not establish the life work affirmatively, why trouble your mother?


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grigori_Perelman


Has any individual ever declined the Nobel Prize?

 

[moose]

https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=129497

EDIT: BTW, it's a LOT more money than that when you include the clay institute's prize for figuring this out.

 

[Schrodinger's Dog]

hehe some people are obsessed with money some aren't believe it or not

 

[J77]

Rather sad if it's true.

Not really.

I think it's rather cool of him not to want the attention.

 

[Evo]

Not really.

I think it's rather cool of him not to want the attention.

Sad that he has withdrawn from mathematics.

 

[J77]

Sad that he has withdrawn from mathematics.

Yeah - there's some great quotes on the wiki page tho'

"He proposed to me three alternatives: accept and come; accept and don’t come, and we will send you the medal later; third, I don’t accept the prize. From the very beginning, I told him I have chosen the third one." He went on to say that the prize "was completely irrelevant for me. Everybody understood that if the proof is correct then no other recognition is needed."

Those Russians

 

[Mk]

Did you say he proved the Poincaré Conjecture? Wasn't that one of the millenium problems? Surely he did not refuse the million dollars!

 

[Evo]

Did you say he proved the Poincaré Conjecture? Wasn't that one of the millenium problems? Surely he did not refuse the million dollars!

He's also refused the million the last I heard.

 

[GCT]

It seems that he's throwing some kind of a fit to me, he's actually getting more attention then he would have if he would have just graciously accepted the Fields medal. Personally, I don't see the need to create all of this commotion, however, it seems that from his perspective that there are serious problems with the mathematical hierarchy which he wants no part of. But if could just get over this aspect and received the prize for a highly respectable life endeavor, establish his career future, and put the money to good use...he would have escaped the mortal burdens that most of us bear each day of our lives. It's a chance to establish a peaceable lifestyle, the fact that he refused this reflects that he wants something more, and that he is perhaps under some kind of a delusion.

Perhaps he is somewhat socially inept, for some people for which this applies, unfortunately they don't have any talent either. There are few people in this world that are socially inept and can function magnificiently. He refers to himself as "isolated" yet his work speaks for itself. If I were him, I would take the money, establish a hobby (e.g. gardening, scuba diving, camping, bird watching...surely this guy has a hobby) and get myself a nice place to endeavor in the research, because with his credentials he can take up any kind of research he wants. Surely this guy has some kind of an interest in such things besides being cooped up in his mother's house, he has apparently closed many of the doors towards establishing himself in any sense, or perhaps he is trying to make some momentary statements. He wishes to bring up an issue to light and for him, this is more satisfying, whether it is logically or emotionally based with respect to his sanity.

 

[Astronuc]

The Fields Medal is widely viewed to be the top honor a mathematician can receive. It comes with a monetary award, which in 2006, was C$15,000 (US$13,400 or €10,550). The monetary award given to each medalist is much lower than the US$1.3 million or so given to a Nobel laureate when the prize is not shared.

The $1 million would be for the Clay prize - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clay_math_prize - which apparently Perelman is still ellgible. I read that there was some period (2 years) of verification or something like that for each Millenium problem.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poincaré_conjecture

"The Poincaré Conjecture 99 Years Later: A Progress Report" by John Milnor, February 2003
http://www.math.sunysb.edu/~jack/PREPRINTS/poiproof.pdf

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poincaré_conjecture#References

 

[shmoe]

Has any individual ever declined the Nobel Prize?

Yes,

Two winners have declined the Nobel Prize!

Jean-Paul Sartre, awarded the 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature, declined the prize because he had consistently declined all official honors.

Le Duc Tho, awarded the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize jointly with US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. They received the Prize for negotiating the Vietnam peace accord. Le Doc Tho said that he was not in a position to accept the Prize, giving as his reason the situation in Vietnam.

from http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/nobelprize_facts.html

4 more were forced to decline.



The Clay Prize has the following rule:

Before consideration, a proposed solution must be published in a refereed mathematics publication of worldwide repute (or such other form as the SAB shall determine qualifies), and it must also have general acceptance in the mathematics community two years after...

from http://www.claymath.org/millennium/Rules_etc/

ArXiv isn't refereed, but the Clay people pretty much have full discretion on what counts. They can also spread out the prize as they see fit, even giving heirs a portion of the award if a deceased mathematician has been deemed to provide an important enough contribution to the solution.

We asked Perelman whether, by refusing the Fields and withdrawing from his profession, he was eliminating any possibility of influencing the discipline. “I am not a politician!” he replied, angrily. Perelman would not say whether his objection to awards extended to the Clay Institute’s million-dollar prize. “I’m not going to decide whether to accept the prize until it is offered,” he said.

From http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060828fa_fact2 I haven't heard anything more recent.