The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters would like to welcome Andrei Mihai and Nataliya Demina to this year’s Abel Prize in Oslo, Norway. They will have the opportunity to attend several days’ worth of events, including keynote presentations, a gala banquet, and the official presentation of the award by the King. Andrei and Nataliya have been selected from a competitive pool of applicants, thanks to their outstanding application and dedication to science journalism.
Andrei is one of the founders of ZME Science, a popular science publication with over 1.5 million monthly visitors, and a PhD candidate in geophysics. In 2019, he wrote a brilliant profile of Abel Prize laureate Karen Uhlenbeck. He covers mathematics creatively, translating difficult concepts into an easy-to-understand language without losing the nuance.
Nataliya has a Master’s degree in Mathematics, and has been working as a science journalist for more than 15 years. She has published dozens of stories focused on mathematics and mathematicians, including those related to the questionable prosecution of Azat Miftakhov. Nataliya reports for the independent biweekly newspaper “Troitsky variant – Science”.
Norway’s prestigious Abel Prize honours the world’s finest contributions to mathematics. This year it is being presented to Dennis Parnell Sullivan of the Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York, USA. The award citation refers to his ground-breaking contributions in several diverse aspects of topology, the branch of mathematics that considers the fundamental nature of shapes.
The Prize’s roots go back to 1899, when Norwegian mathematician Sophus Lie voiced his disappointment that the newly created Nobel Prizes did not include one for mathematics. The King of what was then a united Sweden and Norway was prepared to fund such an award, but those plans were thwarted when the two countries separated in 1905. Finally, in 2002 the Norwegian government established the prize, which is named after the country’s pioneering 19th-century mathematician Niels Henrik Abel and includes a monetary award now worth around US$1 million. The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters administered the annual selection, which is conducted by a committee of the world’s leading mathematicians.
Niels Henrik Abel (1802–1829) was a Norwegian mathematician who made pioneering contributions in a variety of fields. His most famous single result is the first complete proof demonstrating the impossibility of solving the general quintic equation in radicals. This question was one of the outstanding open problems of his day, and had been unresolved for more than 250 years.
Not able to travel to Oslo? Follow the stream!
You can see the Abel Prize Ceremony on the Abel Prize YouTube-channel
The mathematical Able Prize Lectures you can find on a stream on this event
ABEL PRIZE 2022
The Abel Prize is a prize for outstanding mathematical work, named after Norway’s most famous mathematician of all time, Niels Henrik Abel (1802-1829).
The journalists on scholarships from WFSJ will meet with this year’s Abel Prize Laureate, Dennis Sullivan, during the Abel Prize Week in Oslo from May 23 – 25.
The Abel Prize is traditionally awarded by the Norwegian King Harald V at the University Aula (University of Oslo), one of Oslo’s most famous buildings, decorated with the artist Edvard Munch’s (1863-1944) magnificent monumental paintings.
ABEL PRIZE WEEK 2022, May 23 – 25
The program for the Abel Prize Week includes The Holmboe Prize Ceremony at Oslo Cathedral School, a wreath-Laying at the Abel Monument by the artist Gustav Vigeland (1869-1943) in the Palace Park, a journalist dinner, the Abel Prize Ceremony and the Norwegian Government’s Abel Prize Banquet (by special invitation only), the Abel Lectures and the Abel Party.