YOU have got to be crazy to turn down $1 million and the top prize in your field 鈥� unless you are a mathematician, that is, for whom eccentricity is almost de rigueur.
Grigori Perelman, a Russian mathematician who has received widespread acclaim for his purported proof of the Poincar茅 conjecture, one of mathematics鈥� most celebrated problems (see 鈥淏urden of proof鈥�), did not turn up to collect his Fields medal on Tuesday. It is rumoured that he may also turn down the $1 million that the Clay Institute of Mathematics in Boston would award if his proof passes muster, as looks likely.
鈥淚f his proof passes muster, it is rumoured he may turn down the $1 million prize鈥�
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To balance things out, three other Fields medal winners 鈥� Terence Tao of the University of California, Los Angeles, Andrei Okounkov of Princeton University, and Wendelin Werner of the University of Paris-Sud in Orsay 鈥� accepted their medals from King Juan Carlos of Spain at a ceremony in Madrid.
