FIELDS MEDAL

Fields Medal

The Fields Medals are commonly regarded as mathematics' closest analog to the Nobel Prize (which does not exist in mathematics), and are awarded every four years by the International Mathematical Union to one or more outstanding researchers. "Fields Medals" are more properly known by their official name, "International medals for outstanding discoveries in mathematics."

The Field Medals were first proposed at the 1924 International Congress of Mathematicians in Toronto, where a resolution was adopted stating that at each subsequent conference, two gold medals should be awarded to recognize outstanding mathematical achievement. Professor J. C. Fields, a Canadian mathematician who was secretary of the 1924 Congress, later donated funds establishing the medals which were named in his honor. Consistent with Fields' wish that the awards recognize both existing work and the promise of future achievement, it was agreed to restrict the medals to mathematicians not over forty at the year of the Congress. In 1966 it was agreed that, in light of the great expansion of mathematical research, up to four medals could be awarded at each Congress.

The Fields Medal is the highest scientific award for mathematicians, and is presented every four years at the International Congress of Mathematicians, together with a prize of   Canadian dollars. The first Fields Medal was awarded in 1936 at the World Congress in Oslo. The Fields Medal is made of gold, and shows the head of Archimedes (287-212 BC) together with a quotation attributed to him: "Transire suum pectus mundoque potiri" ("Rise above oneself and grasp the world"). The reverse side bears the inscription: "Congregati ex toto orbe mathematici ob scripta insignia tribuere" ("the mathematicians assembled here from all over the world pay tribute for outstanding work").

Nobel prizes were created in the will of the Swedish chemist and inventor of dynamite Alfred Nobel, but Nobel, who was an inventor and industrialist, did not create a prize in mathematics because he was not particularly interested in mathematics or theoretical science. In fact, his will speaks of prizes for those "inventions or discoveries" of greatest practical benefit to mankind. While it is commonly stated that Nobel decided against a Nobel prize in math because of anger over the romantic attentions of a famous mathematician (often claimed to be Gosta Mittag-Leffler) to a woman in his life, there is no historical evidence to support the story. Furthermore, Nobel was a lifelong bachelor, although he did have a Viennese woman named Sophie Hess as his mistress (Lopez-Ortiz).

REFERENCE:

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/FieldsMedal.html