Interviews with the Abel Prize Laureates 2003-2016

303 Pages·2017·4.47 MB·English

by  Martin Raussen

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Interviews with the n h
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The Abel Prize was established in 2002 by the Norwegian Ministry
t Interviews
e
of Education and Research. It has been awarded annually to mathe- s with the
maticians in recognition of pioneering scientific achievements.
2
0
Since the first occasion in 2003, Martin Raussen and Christian Skau 0 Abel Prize Laureates
3
have had the opportunity to conduct extensive interviews with the –
2
laureates. The interviews were broadcast by Norwegian television;
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moreover, they have appeared in the membership journals of several 1 2003–2016
6
mathematical societies.
The interviews from the period 2003 – 2016 have now been collected
in this edition. They highlight the mathematical achievements of the Martin Raussen
laureates in a historical perspective and they try to unravel the way in
which the world’s most famous mathematicians conceive and judge Christian Skau
their results, how they collaborate with peers and students, and how
they perceive the importance of mathematics for society.
Editors
ISBN 978-3-03719-177-4
www.ems-ph.org
Raussen/Skau | Fonts: Helvetica Neue | Farben: Pantone 116, Pantone 287, Cyan | RB 15.1 mm

Interviews
with the

Abel Prize Laureates
2003–2016
Martin Raussen
Christian Skau
Editors
Editors:
Martin Raussen Christian Skau
Department of Mathematical Sciences Department of Mathematical Sciences
Aalborg University Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Skjernvej 4A 7491 Trondheim
9220 Aalborg Norway
Denmark
E-mail: [email protected]
E-mail: [email protected]
2010 Mathematics Subject Classification: 01A70. 01A60, 01A61, 01A80, 00A35
Key words: Abel prize, laureates, interviews, history of mathematics, appreciation of mathematics
ISBN 978-3-03719-177-4
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kind of use permission of the copyright owner must be obtained.
© 2017 European Mathematical Society
Contact address:
European Mathematical Society Publishing House
Seminar for Applied Mathematics
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E-mail: [email protected]
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Printing and binding: Beltz Bad Langensalza GmbH, Bad Langensalza, Germany
∞ Printed on acid free paper
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Table of Contents
Preface ............................................................................................................................................................................................... vii
Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................................ ix
Abel Prize 2003: Jean-Pierre Serre ..................................................................................................................... 1
Abel Prize 2004: Sir Michael Francis Atiyah and Isadore M. Singer ............................ 11
Abel Prize 2005: Peter D. Lax .................................................................................................................................. 31
Abel Prize 2006: Lennart Carleson .................................................................................................................... 47
Abel Prize 2007: Srinivasa S. R. Varadhan ................................................................................................. 61
Abel Prize 2008: John Griggs Thompson and Jacques Tits ..................................................... 79
Abel Prize 2009: Mikhail Gromov ...................................................................................................................... 97
Abel Prize 2010: John Tate .......................................................................................................................................... 123
Abel Prize 2011: John Milnor .................................................................................................................................. 141
Abel Prize 2012: Endre Szemerédi ..................................................................................................................... 161
Abel Prize 2013: Pierre Deligne ............................................................................................................................. 183
Abel Prize 2014: Yakov G. Sinai ............................................................................................................................ 201
Abel Prize 2015: John F. Nash, Jr. and Louis Nirenberg ............................................................. 219
Abel Prize 2016: Sir Andrew J. Wiles .............................................................................................................. 245
An Imaginary Interview with Niels Henrik Abel .............................................................................. 267
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Preface
The Abel Prize is an international prize established in 2002 by the Norwegian Min-
istry of Education and Research and is administered through an annual grant by the
Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. It is awarded every year in recognition
of pioneering scientific achievements in mathematics. The year 2002 marked the
bicentennial of Nils Henrik Abel’s birth and the prize was established in honour of
his exceptional mathematical heritage. The Abel Prize is also meant to promote the
field of mathematics and to make the prize winners and their work known to the
public.
Every year from 2003 until 2016, the Abel Prize laureates have been interviewed
by Martin Raussen and Christian Skau in connection with the award ceremony.
These interviews have been broadcast on Norwegian national television (and of-
ten repeated) and can be streamed from the Abel Prize website, www.abelprize.no.
Transcripts of the interviews have been published in the EMS Newsletter and the
Notices of the AMS. This book is a collection of the interviews, with a new intro-
duction by the interviewers.
The Abel Board and the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters would here-
by like to express our gratitude to Martin Raussen and Christian Skau for conduct-
ing the Abel interviews and for preparing their transcripts for publication in this
book, thus making them available to a broad audience in printed form that has
proven its durability.
Autobiographical pieces by the laureates and descriptions of their work by fellow
mathematicians are published by Springer in volumes entitled “The Abel Prize”, ed-
ited by Helge Holden and Ragni Piene.
Ole M Sejersted Kristian Ranestad
President Chairman
Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters Abel Board
vii

Introduction
How it all started: the first interview in 2003
The Abel Prize was established by the Norwegian government in 2002 on the occa-
sion of the 200th anniversary of Niels Henrik Abel's birth. Its main aim was to
recognise contributions to mathematics of extraordinary depth and influence. An
Abel Committee consisting of five prominent mathematicians had the difficult task
of selecting the first Abel laureate for 2003. In March of that year, its chair Erling
Størmer announced the committee’s decision to award the first Abel Prize to Jean-
Pierre Serre, Emeritus Professor at the Collège de France in Paris, to be honoured
“for playing a key role in shaping the modern form of many parts of mathematics,
including topology, algebraic geometry and number theory”.
The Abel Prize, having been recently established, was not yet well known to
mathematicians (and even less so to the public at large). The Abel Board tried to ad-
vertise the prize by various means, including using Norwegian diplomacy. Among
many other initiatives, the Norwegian embassy in Denmark approached the edi-
torial board of Matilde, a small membership journal of the Danish Mathematical
Society; the editors were asked whether they would be willing to cover the prize
ceremony and help in making the prize more well known in Denmark. Martin Raus-
sen had previously interviewed a number of well known Danish mathematicians for
Matilde. After some reflection, he gathered his courage and asked whether it would
be possible to have an interview with the laureate. To his surprise, arrangements
were made quickly and an interview was granted by the organisers and by Professor
Serre.
Very shortly after this, the Norwegian Mathematical Society came up with the
same idea – an interview to be conducted with the laureate. The reply from the
organisers was negative as an arrangement had already been made with a mathema-
tician from Denmark! Luckily, the society’s president at the time, Kristian Seip, did
not take this as the end of the story; he called Martin Raussen, proposing that the
interview become a joint venture with Christian Skau, a Norwegian mathematician
with a keen interest in Abel and his mathematics. The two of us did not know each
other at the time but it turned out that this “forced marriage” would be the begin-
ning of a long and fruitful partnership.
We did not have a lot of time to prepare for our first Abel interview. As a point
of departure, we had, of course, the prize citation. We both knew bits and pieces
about certain aspects of Serre’s work and its importance but neither of us had the
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