Saturday, August 4, 2018

Cipherin' Champs!

This entry at Curiosa Mathematica offers a list of the winners of some of mathematics top awards for 2018, including four people who won the Fields Medal, sometimes labeled the Nobel Prize of math. Fields Medal recipients probably like to phrase that the other way around, but the Nobel came first so it gets the notoriety.

University of Cambridge professor Caucher Birkar had to be awarded a replacement medal; the briefcase containing his original one was stolen just minutes after it had been given to him, while pictures were being taken. Given that Birkar is an Iranian Kurd who applied for and received asylum in England while studying at Tehran, he will probably take the theft in stride.

The likelihood that the thief or thieves will recognize much profit from their action is small -- although there's about $4,000 worth of gold in the medal it will probably have to be melted down in order to be sold and one art theft expert estimates it will wind up bringing in only about a quarter of that value.

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