Princeton University mathematician John Nash was awarded the 2015 Abel Prize by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters March 25 for his seminal work on partial differential equations, which are used to describe the basic laws of scientific phenomena. Established in 2003, the award is one of the most prestigious in the field of mathematics and includes an $800,000 prize.
Nash, a Princeton senior research mathematician, will share the prize with longtime colleague Louis Nirenberg, a professor emeritus at New York University’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences. Nash is the second consecutive Princeton researcher to receive the honor; Yakov Sinai, a Princeton University professor of mathematics, was awarded the 2014 Abel Prize for his influential 50-year career in mathematics. Several past winners have been University alumni.
Nash is a 1994 Nobel Prize laureate in economics publicly known for his work in game theory as dramatized in the 2001 film “A Beautiful Mind” in which he was portrayed by actor Russell Crowe.
It is Nash’s work in geometry and partial differential equations that “the mathematical community regards as his most important and deepest work,” according to the academy. The prize citation recognized Nash and Nirenberg for “striking and seminal contributions? to the theory of nonlinear partial differential equations and its applications? to geometric analysis.”
The academy went on to say: “Their breakthroughs have developed into versatile and robust techniques, which have become essential tools for the study of nonlinear partial differential equations. Their impact can be felt in all branches of the theory …. [T]he widespread impact of both Nash and Nirenberg on the modern toolbox of nonlinear partial differential equations cannot be fully covered here.”
Nobel Laureate John F Nash Junior won the Abel Prize 2015 for his work on partial differential equations. The prize was proclaimed on twenty fifth March 2015 by the Norwegian Academy of Sciences and Letters. They will receive the Abel Prize from His majesty King Harald at a ceremony in Oslo on nineteen May- 2015.
He will share the Prize with Louis Nirenberg, Prof. Emeritus at New York University’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences. They both will share the prize money of 760000 U.S. dollar.
Nash and Nirenberg won the prize for striking and seminal contributions to the theory of nonlinear partial differential equations and its applications to geometric analysis. Partial differential equations are important in both pure mathematics and describing natural phenomena.
John Nash is a senior research mathematician at Princeton University. He won the Nobel Prize for economics in 1994 for his work in game theory as dramatized in the 2001 film a beautiful Mind in which he was portrayed by actor Russell Crowe.
About the Abel Prize
The Abel Prize is an international prize given annually by the King of Norway to one or more outstanding mathematicians. The prize was named after Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel.
The award was established in 2001 by the govt. of Noreg and complements the Holberg Prize in the humanities.
The Abel Prize has often been described as the mathematician’s Nobel Prize, competing in that respect with the much older Fields medal. It comes with a cash award of 6 million Norwegian kroner (NOK).
In 2014, it was won by Yakov G Sinai, Prof at Princeton University and Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences.
The first Abel Prize was won by Jean-Pierre Serre, Prof. at Collège de France, Paris in 2003.