A History of the Fields Medal

The reasons for Nobel's oversight of surely one of the most important fields of scientific thought have been stipulated upon for years, but regardless of the reason, the vacuum left by the lack of a Nobel Prize in mathematics have led several organizations toward the creation of prizes which might fill this void, though perhaps none are quite as prestigious as the famous Fields Medal.

The Origins

This Medal is named for Canadian mathematician John Charles Fields, and was first awarded in 1936, four years after Fields' death. While Fields had been planning to institute this award for several years before he passed away, Fields left a large portion of his will toward the goal of creating the medal (which also comes with a monetary reward - modest compared to the Nobel - of around $15,000 US), and ever since it has become one of the most important achievements a mathematician can possibly attain.

Why has this medal become so prestigious? After all, it is certainly not the only mathematics award in the world? That is a difficult question to answer, though much can surely be said of the fact that in mathematics there was a vacuum which this award capably filled, and over the years its stature has only grown due to the importance placed on it by the mathematical community itself.

Unlike the Nobel Prize, which is given out every year in a wide variety of subjects with no limitations on who might receive it, the Fields Medal is limited only to mathematicians under the age of forty (in order to encourage them to even greater future work), and is given out every four years (though it is given out to upwards of four people in each ceremony). In addition, while the Nobel is given out only in Stockholm, Sweden (the home of Alfred Nobel), the location of the Fields Medal ceremony changes every four years, taking place wherever that year's International Congress of the International Mathematical Union is meeting.

Winning the Medal

So what does it take to win the Fields Medal?

One thing is certain, it is not a simple task. As opposed to the Nobel Prize, which has been awarded to several hundred people (one each year for more than a century now in each of the five categories, not including Economics), the Fields Medal has only been awarded to 49 people over the past seventy years!

In order to achieve this high honor, a mathematician (who is under the age of forty - which is requirement #1), must achieve something truly spectacular in the fields of mathematics. For example, the last four medals to be given out, in 2006, were given to the following people:

Andrei Okounkov: "For his contributions to bridging probability, representation theory and algebraic geometry"

Grigory Perelman: "For his contributions to geometry and his revolutionary insights into the analytical and geometric structure of the Ricci Flow."

Terence Tau: For his work with prime number progressions (Tau had been a child prodigy, and one of the most gifted mathematicians in the world by the age of 13).

Wendelin Werner: For work in the fields of probability theory and mathematical physics.

Again unlike the Nobel Prize, the Fields Medal does not possess a long line of big, important, famous names (Albert Einstein, Neils Bohr, Al Gore, Jimmy Carter, etc.), as mathematicians rarely become world famous. Perhaps the most famous name in the Fields Medal roster (though still relatively unknown) is Andrew Wiles, 1998 winner for his famous proof of Fermat's Last Theorem.

The Fields Medal is thus a place for largely unrecognized mathematicians (a redundant phrase, to be sure) can finally achieve their well-deserved moment in the spotlight.

References:

"The Fields Institute."

"International Mathematical Union."

The Fields Medal

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