Hamilton-born mathematician awarded top prize in his field

Louis Nirenberg is obviously a very smart man. Trying to explain exactly why he’s so smart is next to impossible.

The Hamilton-born mathematician, who turns 91 in a couple of weeks, has added the world’s top mathematics prize to his already impressive resumé.

Nirenberg and his longtime friend, the late John Nash Jr., were awarded the Abel Prize, the mathematics equivalent of the Nobel Prize. The award is worth almost $1 million. Nash was the subject of the movie “A Beautiful Mind.”

Nirenberg is considered one of the world’s leading authorities in the area of partial differential equations, which are the main links between physics and mathematics.

Partial differential equations can be used to help model such things as the behaviour of sound waves, heat diffusion, thermodynamics, fluid dynamics and quantum mechanics.

Need more? There’s this explanation from MathWorld:

“In general, partial differential equations are much more difficult to solve analytically than are ordinary differential equations. They may sometimes be solved using a Bäcklund transformation, characteristics, Green’s function, integral transform, Lax pair, separation of variables, or — when all else f ails (which it frequently does) — numerical methods such as finite differences.” Did that help? Born in 1925, Nirenberg spent the first six years of his life on Barton Street in Hamilton and then another two in St. Catharines before he moved with his family to Montreal.

After graduating from McGill University in 1945, Nirenberg went to New York University to do his master’s degree and PhD.

He never left, joining NYU’s faculty after obtaining his PhD in 1949.

In addition to the Abel Prize, Nirenberg was the inaugural recipient of the Swedish Crafoord Prize, which is considered one of the other most prestigious awards in the field of mathematics.

Nirenberg was presented the award in 1982 by the king of Sweden. He has also won the National Medal of Science, the highest honour in the United States for contributions to science. In 2001, Nirenberg returned to his Hamilton roots and received an honorary degree from McMaster University.

That same year, the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory decided to name a small planet after Nirenberg.

“I haven’t been there yet, but it’s six kilometres in diameter and you’re welcome to go visit it,” Nirenberg said in an earlier Spectator interview. “But you must find your own transportation.”