Grigori Perelman, mathematician who refused to accept a Fields Medal and the $1,000,000 Clay Prize.

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image showing Grigori Perelman, mathematician who refused to accept a Fields Medal and the $1,000,000 Clay Prize.

magentaheavens on April 28th, 2024 at 03:33 UTC »

I remember reading the Wikipedia article on this guy a while ago and what stuck with me was his insistence on completely avoiding media attention. When a journalist called him once he was quoted as saying “You are disturbing me. I am picking mushrooms.” which was pretty funny to me

HosbnBolt on April 28th, 2024 at 03:43 UTC »

My Dad is a mathematician. Heard this guy's name my entire life. First time I'm seeing him.

veldamus on April 28th, 2024 at 05:19 UTC »

From Wikipedia :-

In August 2006, Perelman was offered the Fields Medal for "his contributions to geometry and his revolutionary insights into the analytical and geometric structure of the Ricci flow", but he declined the award, stating: "I'm not interested in money or fame; I don't want to be on display like an animal in a zoo." On 22 December 2006, the scientific journal Science recognized Perelman's proof of the Poincaré conjecture as the scientific "Breakthrough of the Year", the first such recognition in the area of mathematics.

On 18 March 2010, it was announced that he had met the criteria to receive the first Clay Millennium Prize for resolution of the Poincaré conjecture. On 1 July 2010, he rejected the prize of one million dollars, saying that he considered the decision of the board of the Clay Institute to be unfair, in that his contribution to solving the Poincaré conjecture was no greater than that of Richard S. Hamilton, the mathematician who pioneered the Ricci flow partly with the aim of attacking the conjecture. He had previously rejected the prestigious prize of the European Mathematical Society in 1996.