Russian mathematician rejects $1m prize because he considers it unfair
By ANIFriday, July 2, 2010
LONDON - A Russian mathematician has rejected a 1 million dollar prize for solving one of the most challenging problems because he considers it unfair.
According to the Interfax, Grigory Perelman told the Clay Mathematics Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, he was turning down the prize, the Telegraph reported.
Perelman, 43, said he believes his contribution in proving the Poincare conjecture was no greater than that of US mathematician Richard Hamilton, who first suggested a program for the solution.
The Clay Mathematics Institute confirmed in a statement on its website that Perelman had informed it of his refusal to accept the prize.
He did not appear in Paris on June 22 to collect his prize for solving a problem that has puzzled scientists for more than a century.
The Poincare conjecture, one of seven problems on the institute’s Millennium Prize list, deals with shapes that exist in four or more dimensions.
Perelman, who lives in a small apartment in St Petersburg with his elderly mother, is unemployed and neighbours say he lives in poverty.
He has rejected job offers from several top US universities. (ANI)
