A few days ago a young Russian man, Grigori Perelman, was awarded a prize for solving one of mathematics’s most difficult problems.
A few days ago a young Russian man, Grigori Perelman, was awarded a prize for solving one of mathematics’s most difficult problems. It was an extraordinary achievement. The Poincaré conjecture (a topological conundrum) had baffled the best minds on the planet for over 100 years and the solution could help us understand the shape of the universe.
Yet Perelman avoided any fanfare and, to the great surprise of the maths community, simply posted his solution online. Almost more extraordinary (for non-mathematicians) than Perelman’s proof was the fact that on Monday he turned down the prize money of a million dollars. He had all he wanted already, he said. Four years earlier, he also refused the Fields medal — the maths equivalent of a Nobel prize — on the grounds that he wasn’t a hero and preferred to be left in peace.
So here’s another conundrum of a sort: the world is obsessed with fame and wealth, yet its cleverest man wants no part of either. Perelman’s reluctance to give interviews has, of course, acted like catnip on the media and there are journalists now camped outside his tiny flat in St Petersburg, which he shares with his mother. There’s bound to be a Hollywood biopic in the making.
It’s inevitable but also tragic that although we’d happily give Grigori Perelman a million dollars, it is too much for us to give him the privacy he wants.
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