They wanted to award the scientist with the Fields medal, the highest award of the International Union of Mathematics. Since the Nobel Prize is not awarded to members of this union, this honor is considered the highest.
Brilliant discovery
In 2002, the Los Alamos Laboratory of Sciences website was enriched by a solution to the problem carried out by Gregory. When he refused the prize, the international congress on mathematics until the last did not want to make this his decision and tried to convince the scientist. They said that there was no information about the reluctance to receive an award from Perelman, especially since there were no official data on the award at that time.
Prize nomination
When the winners were finally announced, including mathematician Grigory Perelman along with Andrei Okunov, who at that time worked in the United States. The recluse was not found among scientists who arrived at the congress. They did not even receive a response from him to a letter informing him of the award. The conference guests were perplexed, as were the organizers. As it turned out later, the scientist declared his unwillingness to receive money a few months before the meeting.
What is this man
As he did not like the attention of the general public before the nomination, so it was after the honors. When a strange event took place, little was known about it. Is that the year of his birth was 1966, and the place - Leningrad. Parents were employees.
In the sixteenth year of his life, he received a gold medal at school and graduated from an educational institution. Already there, he began to study in depth the work of his life. 1982 was remembered for participation in the International Mathematics Olympiad, which was held among Soviet schools. This event opened for a boy in Budapest. Then, without exams, he ended up at the Leningrad State University at the Faculty of Mathematics and Mechanics.
Career
In St. Petersburg, he defended his thesis by graduating from State University. The first place of work was the Institute of Mathematics. Steklov. The end of the eighties brought him a change of residence in the United States. American universities accepted him within their walls as a teacher. Then he returned to his homeland and again worked at the Steklov Institute. All his thoughts were occupied by the Poincare conjecture.
There were a number of other awards that Gregory ignored. The mathematical world wanted to give him recognition and respect, money. But all this was unnecessary to him. 1996 was marked by the rejection of the prize of the European Congress of Mathematics. At the award ceremony, he also failed to appear.
He was waiting until the last
The congress was held in Spain. Many brilliant mathematicians arrived in the capital. Perelman was supposed to arrive there. The Nobel Prize dutifully awaited him, along with respect, honor and a cash prize of one million dollars. However, they were not destined to fall into the hands of a scientist.
The conference members had heard about the extravagance of the Russian mathematician and suspected that the option in which he would refuse the Nobel Prize Perelman is not so similar to fiction.
Gregory did not publish the proof of the theorem that so interested the scientific world. Specialized publications were waiting for materials from him, but never received. It is hard to overestimate his contribution to science for those who understand why Perelman received the Nobel Prize. The brilliant discovery was followed by a dismissal that surprised them. Steklov.
What happened to him next
Perelman rushed to retreat. The Nobel Prize and the money that comes with it have never been an end in itself for a scientist. He never came to Spain for his Fields medal award, forcing many to wonder about the reasons for such a strange act.
Why did Perelman refuse the Nobel Prize? After all, colleagues in science, all the scientists of that time were ready to applaud him while standing. Before him, many scientists puzzled over the solution of the Poincare theorem, to which he finally shed light. The discovery facilitated the work of more than one mathematician. As early as 1904, the world became acquainted with the Poincare hypothesis, which introduced him into thoughtfulness for a century. There were many options for proof, but none could be recognized as true, while the scientist got to the bottom of the truth and provided the scientific world with a reliable explanation.
Perelman did not leave people's thoughts. The Nobel Prize is rejected by him, so you need to at least understand the reason. The American magazine The New Yorker, represented by its correspondents, interrupted the retreat of Gregory. At that moment his house was the outskirts of St. Petersburg, where the film crew appeared. They learned from a mathematician that Grigory Perelman refused the Nobel Prize due to personal fundamental considerations.
The mathematician has long been a real mystery to the media. What could be so important and weighty to ward off the desire to get a million dollars and go to Madrid?
Perelman called his actions a protest. The Nobel Prize in his eyes spoils the mores of the modern mathematical world, as American journalists have learned. Science must rely on honesty. For the sake of a monetary reward, many are willing to cheat, become charlatans. Then the thinking people will not care about the result, but the money, and they will direct their mental potential to cunning, and not to discoveries.
Better poor, but by principles
At that moment, Perelman Gregory was unemployed. The Nobel Prize, of course, would help him financially and improve his life, but he decided that previous savings were a sufficient norm for existence. His mother had to share his pension with him. She herself previously taught mathematics at school. Even if there was a desire, according to Gregory, he would not be able to get to Spain due to lack of funds for the road.
The establishment of the most prestigious mathematical prize took place in 1936. Perelman was the first to reject honors during this time. Unless Pasternak refused the Nobel Prize at one time for political reasons. Fields medal can be obtained by a researcher who is less than 40 years old. That is, in the future Gregory this award no longer shines. He missed his only chance. His contribution to science can rightfully be called invaluable. Thanks to this, the development of mathematics has taken one significant step forward. Many modern studies have not moved off the ground precisely because of the secrecy of Poincare’s theorem. The idea of the physical and mathematical foundations of the universe has expanded and gained great clarity. Perelman can be called one of the greatest scientists of the present and past. All of us could notice that geniuses really have their own oddities.