The Abel Prize celebrations
Nils Voje Johansen and Yngvar Reichelt for EMS Newsletter
On 25 March, the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters announced that the Abel Prize for 2004 was to be awarded to Sir Michael F. Atiyah of the University of Edinburgh and Isadore M. Singer of MIT.This is the second Abel Prize awarded following the Norwegian Government’s decision in 2001 to allocate NOK 200 million to the creation of the Abel Foundation, with the intention of awarding an international prize for outstanding research in mathematics. The prize, amounting to NOK 6 million, was instituted to make up for the fact that there is no Nobel Prize for mathematics. In addition to awarding the international prize, the Foundation shall contribute part of its earnings to measures for increasing interest in, and stimulating recruitment to, mathematical and scientific fields.
The first Abel Prize was awarded in 2003 to the French mathematician Jean- Pierre Serre for playing a key role in shaping the modern form of many parts of mathematics. In 2004, the Abel Committee decided that Michael F. Atiyah and Isadore M. Singer should share the prize for:
their discovery and proof of the index
theorem, bringing together topology,
geometry and analysis, and their outstanding
role in building new bridges
between mathematics and theoretical
physics.
The Abel Prize for 2004 was presented
on 25 May, the occasion being marked by
a number of associated events in Oslo.
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