Basic HISTORY that a lot of people are Still Unaware of: There Is NO Nobel Prize of mathematics. — So just WTH *IS* the so-called Nobel Prize of mathematics anyway?!… On Wednesday in Seoul, the International Congress of Mathematicians will announce the winners of the Fields Medal. First awarded in Oslo in 1936, the medal is given every four years to two to four mathematicians. It is considered the Nobel Prize of mathematics (even the organizers of the congress call it that), filling a gap left by Alfred Nobel, who did not include mathematics among the prizes endowed on his death in 1896… For decades the Fields Medal was relatively obscure. In 1950, neither of the two recipients had heard of the award before being told that he had won it. So how did it become the Nobel Prize of mathematics? The true story helps illuminate the often neglected intersection of mathematics and politics… To say mathematics is political is not to diminish it, but rather to recognize its greater meaning, promise and responsibilities.
Posted on: Mon, 11 Aug 2014 04:38:57 +0000
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