British mathematician Andrew Wiles wins 2016 Abel Prize

British mathematician Andrew Wiles (62) was named as the winner of the prestigious 2016 Abel Prize.
He was selected by the Norwegian Academy of Sciences and Letters for solving a centuries old hypothesis (equation), Fermat’s Last Theorem.
Academy has described his achievement as an epochal moment for mathematics and will be bestowed with this award in May 2016 by the Crown Prince Haakon.

About Andrew Wiles

• Born on 11 April 1953 in Cambridge, England.
• He is a Royal Society Research Professor at the University of Oxford and specialises in number theory.
• He had earned his bachelor’s degree in mathematics in 1974 at Merton College, Oxford and a PhD at Clare College, Cambridge in 1980.
• He was a Royal Society Research Professor at the University of Oxford from 1988 to 1990. In 2011, he again had rejoined Oxford as Royal Society Research Professor.
• Awards and Honours: The asteroid 9999 Wiles was named after Wiles in 1999. Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (2000), Pythagoras Award (2004) etc.

About Abel Prize

• Abel Prize is a Norwegian prize awarded annually to one or more outstanding mathematicians. It is described as the mathematician’s Nobel Prize.
• The award was established by the Government of Norway in 2001. It has been named after Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel.
• It carries monetary award of 6 million Norwegian kroner (NOK) (around 600,000 Euros).
• The 2015 edition of prize was bestowed upon John F. Nash Jr. (US) And Louis Nirenberg (US/Canada).
• Fact: Indian American mathematician R. Srinivasa Varadhan was bestowed with this award in 2007 for his fundamental contributions to probability theory and for creating a unified theory of large deviation.

Month: Current Affairs - March, 2016