The International Mathematical Union announced on July 5 the names of 4 winners of the World Fields Medal in Mathematics for the year 2022.

This award is considered the highest honor in the field of mathematics, as it is equivalent to the Nobel Prize awarded in fields other than mathematics.

International recognition in the field of mathematics

Since 1936, the Fields Prize has been awarded once every 4 years to mathematicians under the age of 40 who have contributed to promising mathematical achievements in the field.

The award was established by Canadian mathematician John Charles Fields.

This year's Fields Award winners were:

Prize-winning scientists from right.. Marina Vyazowska, Hugo Dominelle Cobain, James Maynard and John Huh (communication sites)

  • Hugo Dominelle-Coppin is a statistical physicist at the Institute for Advanced Scientific Studies in Paris, France.

  • John Huh: Specialist in the Mathematical Harmonics Branch at Princeton University in New Jersey, USA.

  • James Maynard is a number theorist at the University of Oxford, UK.

  • Marina Vyazowska: Number theorist at EPFL Lausanne, Switzerland.

The selection of the names of the winners comes after the meeting of mathematicians and their deliberations about the mathematical works that deserve honor.

The prize winner will be awarded a gold medal and a cash prize of 15,000 Canadian dollars.

According to the report published in the journal Nature, commenting on the award, Brianna Kra, a mathematician at Northwestern University in Illinois and president-elect of the American Mathematical Association, says that “all winners deserve honors well-deserved, as they demonstrate the The vitality of sports research around the world.

The prize winner is awarded a gold medal and a cash prize of 15,000 Canadian dollars (social networking sites)

Women in mathematics

Vyasovska - Ukraine - is the second woman to win this award ever since its establishment, as it was won by Iranian Maryam Mirzakhani, from Stanford University in the United States in 2014. Mirzakhani passed away in 2017.

This year Vyasovska is being honored for her work solving the 'sphere packing problem', which involves arranging spheres - which can occupy the largest volume of space - in 8 dimensions.

In the three spatial dimensions - length, width, height or depth - the most effective way to stack and bundle balls is hierarchical arrangement, of course as a fruit seller does when packing his oranges into a pyramid shape.

However, proving this mathematically correct was very difficult, as it required diligent effort in the nineties of the last century.

But when those dimensions are 4 or greater, we know "little" about how to pack the balls in those dimensions, says Massachusetts Institute of Technology mathematician Henry Cohen.

After the award was announced, Cohen stated that it is "a horrific gap in our knowledge, which is almost embarrassing to all of humanity".

Iranian Maryam Mirzakhani was the first woman to win the Fields International Prize in 2014 (social networking sites)

Inspired by number theory and eight-dimensional symmetry theory, Viazowska introduced new techniques for probing this dilemma.

"Although our understanding of the other dimensions is short, it is truly miraculous that Vyasovska solves this dilemma with such precision," Cohen adds.

"Viazowska has devised new and unexpected tools that have enabled her to leap over the natural barriers that have held us back for years," says Peter Sarnak, a number theorist at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.

Politics ravages science's plans

It is worth noting that the announcement of the "Fields Prize", in addition to other awards granted by the International Mathematics Federation, is at the opening of the International Congress of Mathematics, which is held every 4 years.

The current edition of the conference was scheduled to take place this year on 6 July in St. Petersburg, Russia.

However, this plan was canceled due to the outbreak of the Russian war on Ukraine last February.

Instead, the award ceremony was moved to Helsinki, the capital of Finland.

The conference will be held as a virtual event this year.

And 4 of the organizing members wrote - earlier in the announcement of the award, specifically on February 27 last - in a regional statement of the organizing committee, stating, "We condemn madness, injustice and irreversible war that threatens human existence."

Vyasovska created new tools that enabled her to jump over the natural barriers that have held us back for years (social networking sites)

It is noteworthy that the committee that selects the winners of the Fields Prize - whose identity remains secret even after selection - has made its decision on the award before the Russian war on Ukraine.

The International Mathematical Union awards several other prizes, such as the Ladyzhenskaya Prize in Mathematical Physics.

This award is considered the first specialized award to be named after a woman, in honor of the late Russian mathematician Olga Lidesinskaya (1922-2004);

which did not win the "Fields Prize" despite being nominated for the award in 1958. On July 2, the federation announced that Svetlana Zhitomirskaya, also of Ukraine, had won the award.