Art Levinson Steps Down as Chair of Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences Foundation, Succeeded by Cori Bargmann
Online Nominations For 2015 Breakthrough Prizes in Fundamental Physics and Life Sciences are Open Through June 30, 2014
June 23, 2014 (San Francisco) – The Breakthrough Prize Foundation announces five winners of the inaugural Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics:
Simon Donaldson, Stony Brook University and Imperial College London, for the new revolutionary invariants of 4-dimensional manifolds and for the study of the relation between stability in algebraic geometry and in global differential geometry, both for bundles and for Fano varieties.
Maxim Kontsevich, Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques, for work making a deep impact in a vast variety of mathematical disciplines, including algebraic geometry, deformation theory, symplectic topology, homological algebra and dynamical systems.
Jacob Lurie, Harvard University, for his work on the foundations of higher category theory and derived algebraic geometry; for the classification of fully extended topological quantum field theories; and for providing a moduli-theoretic interpretation of elliptic cohomology.
Terence Tao, University of California, Los Angeles, for numerous breakthrough contributions to harmonic analysis, combinatorics, partial differential equations and analytic number theory.
Richard Taylor, Institute for Advanced Study, for numerous breakthrough results in the theory of automorphic forms, including the Taniyama-Weil conjecture, the local Langlands conjecture for general linear groups, and the Sato-Tate conjecture.
The Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics was launched by Mark Zuckerberg and Yuri Milner at the Breakthrough Prize ceremony last December. It aims to recognize major advances in the field, honor the world’s best mathematicians, support their future endeavors and communicate the excitement of mathematics to general public.
The laureates will be presented with their trophies and $3 million each at the Breakthrough Prize ceremony in November.
All five recipients of the Prize have agreed to serve on the Selection Committee, responsible for choosing subsequent winners of the prize from the pool of contenders nominated by the mathematics community. From 2015 onwards, one Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics will be awarded every year.
Mark Zuckerberg said: “Mathematics is essential for driving human progress and innovation in this century. This year’s Breakthrough Prize winners have made huge contributions to the field and we’re excited to celebrate their efforts.”
Yuri Milner commented: “Mathematics is the most fundamental of the sciences – the language they are all written in. The best mathematical minds benefit us all by expanding the sphere of human knowledge.”
据BBC报道, 被喻为“豪华版诺贝尔奖”的“科学突破奖”数学奖首度颁发给五名欧美学者获奖, 包括华裔数学家陶哲轩.
获奖者分别是在美国普林斯顿大学尖端研究所工作的英国数学家理查德•泰勒, 英国伦敦帝国理工大学的西蒙•唐纳森, 法国高等科学研究所的马克西姆•康瑟维奇, 美国哈佛大学的杰克布•卢瑞以及美国加州大学洛杉矶分校澳籍华裔数学家陶哲轩教授.
查德•泰勒在获奖之后说: “科学长期被不公正地认为无聊和无趣, 希望这项大奖能改变人们的成见.”
突破奖基金会由多位亿万富翁资助建立, 其中包括Google联合创始人Sergey Brin和Anne Wojcicki, 马云及其妻子张瑛, 俄罗斯互联网风投家Yuri和Julia Milner夫妇, Facebook创始人Mark Zuckerberg和Priscilla Chan. 突破奖的奖金高达1500万美元, 每位获奖者将能获得300万美元, 被喻为豪华版诺贝尔奖.
Yuri Milner曾指出, 在1950年代, “时代”杂志封面人物除政治家外, 还会有像爱因斯坦这样等对人类贡献巨大的科学家, 而当今世界充斥新闻的只是为大众提供娱乐服务的球星和歌手. 大奖评委方面表示, 颁发世界上“金额最大科学奖”的目的就是要吸引更多优秀人才投身到科学研究领域, 让科学家变成高知名度的明星.