Mathematics Professor Honored with Crafoord Prize

By Marie Guma-Diaz

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the Crafoord Prize to University of Miami Distinguished Professor of Mathematics Maxim Kontsevich in January. One of the world’s largest scientific awards, the prize is offered to researchers who have made outstanding contributions in disciplines that complement those for which the Nobel Prizes are granted.

“It is an immense honor to have Maxim Kontsevich, a leading researcher in the field of mathematics, at the University of Miami and I am pleased to see his accomplishments recognized by this award,” said Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Michael R. Halleran. “Our students and faculty have the magnificent opportunity to work with and learn from a researcher whose work is being honored by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.”

Established in 1980 by Holger Crafoord, a Swedish industrialist, and his wife Anna-Greta Crafoord, the annual award is given on a rotating basis in the fields of astronomy and mathematics, geosciences, biosciences, and polyarthritis research. This year, the award was presented to three scientists in the fields of astronomy and mathematics: Maxim Kontsevich, Edward Witten, and Rashid Alievich Sunyaev.

On April 23, the prize of $500,000 was presented by the King of Sweden jointly to Kontsevich and Witten “for their important contributions to mathematics inspired by modern theoretical physics.” The award sum will fund further research by the prize winners.

“Although I don’t think it will change me or my work, it is a great honor to receive this recognition,” said Kontsevich.

“Maxim Kontsevich is one of the most important mathematicians of our time,” said Department of Mathematics Chairman Alan Zame. “His main contributions have been in the areas of string theory, quantum field theory, knot theory, and many other areas of mathematics and mathematical physics. Much of his work is related to theoretical physics, which may have applications to a wide variety of mathematics problems.”

Kontsevich was the recipient of a Fields Medal in 1998. He has been a professor of mathematics at the Institut des Hautes Ètudes Scientifiques in France since 1995, and in 2002 at the invitation of Zame and of friend and University of Miami colleague Ludmil Katzarkov, he came to UM for a conference and has returned annually to teach.