Mikhail Gromov received the Abel Prize from King Harald V

Mikhail Gromov has received the Abel Prize. Foto: Erlend Aas/Scanpix

The Russian-French mathematician Mikhail Leonidovich Gromov, Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques, Bures-sur-Yvette, France received the 2009 Abel Prize from His Majesty King Harald at an award ceremony in Oslo today, 19 May.

Her Majesty Queen Sonja also attended the award ceremony. The Minister of Research and Higher Education, Tora Aasland, was among the many other prominent persons present. The Abel Prize that carries a cash award of NOK 6 mill. NOK (close US$ 950,000), is awarded by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.

The 2009 Abel Prize is awarded to Mikhail Gromov for his revolutionary contributions to geometry. Kristian Seip, the chairman of the Abel Committee, elaborated on this in his speech at the award ceremony: “Mikhail Gromov is a remarkably creative mathematician. He is always in pursuit of new questions and is constantly thinking of new ideas for solutions of long-standing problems. The work of Gromov will for a long time to come continue to be a source of inspiration for many important mathematical discoveries”. 

Presentation of the Abel Prize

The Niels Henrik Abel Memorial Fund was established on 1 January 2002, to award the Abel Prize for outstanding scientific work in the field of mathematics. The prize amount is 6 million NOK was awarded for the first time on 3 June 2003. The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters has appointed an Abel Committee consisting of five mathematicians to review the nominated candidates and submit a recommendation for a worthy Abel laureate.

Source: Abelprisen.no