Mathematics is the most esoteric science
Bob Brockie Retired biologist Mathematics is the most esoteric science
Nobel Prizes come in six fields – medicine, chemistry, physics, peace, literature, and economics. There is no Nobel Prize in mathematics but the nearest is the Fields Medals, awarded every four years to the brightest mathematicians under the age of 40.
John Fields was a Canadian mathematician who, with the International Congress of Mathematicians, set up the medal in 1936. It has come to symbolise the highest mathematical achievement.
As well as a gold medal, winners take home CAD$15,000, about NZ$17,000. Occasional problems have arisen, as when the Soviets refused to let their mathematicians abroad to pick up their medals for fear of them defecting. Earlier this month in Rio de Janeiro, the International Mathematical Union announced four Fields medallists for 2018:
Peter Scholze: As a student in Germany, Scholze found a way to shorten a book-length mathematical treatise to a page or two of equations. More recently he has extended the ordinary numbers system and built fractal-like structures called ‘‘perfectoid spaces’’, which give new understanding to geometry and topology.
Akshay Venkatesh: Born in New Delhi but brought up in Australia, the child prodigy is now a professor at Princeton University and has made good progress in solving a mathematical puzzle posed by the famous mathematician Gauss in the 19th century. Venkatesh has proposed overarching mathematical conjectures bridging time and space.
Alessio Figalli: The Italian works in Zurich in ‘‘partial differential equations’’, which are used to develop the most efficient way to distribute goods on logistic networks.
Caucher Birkar: The Kurdish refugee to Britain, has reclassified ‘‘geometric objects that arise from polynomial equations’’ and now teaches at Cambridge University.
Sir Vaughan Jones: The New Zealander is professor of maths at Stanford University, won a Fields medal in 1990 for his use of von Neumann algebra in developing ‘‘knot theory’,’valuable in understanding nebulae and DNA molecules that tie themselves in knots.
Hats off to these guys – the purest, most esoteric, recondite, unfathomable and arcane of scientists. Occasional problems have arisen, as when the Soviets refused to let their mathemat icians abroad to pick up their medals for fear of them defecting.