Argentine mathematician Luis Caffarellia 74-year-old from Buenos Aires, was the first Latin American to receive the Abel Prize, considered “the Nobel Prize in Mathematics” and endowed with 7.5 million Norwegian crowns (660,000 euros). The recognition was thanks to his contribution linked to the solid-liquid interactionswhich opens new doors to medicine, automotive and knowledge of the universe
Caffarelli, in an interview granted to The country from Spain, told why his object of study is so complex and necessary, starting from the new world that is created in the interaction of ice in water, a microcosm in which he has been working for more than four decades.
His apprenticeship began at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), where he received his doctorate, and later emigrated to the United States, where he lives, with a scholarship. There he went through the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study, where he ended up the German physicist Albert Einstein fleeing from the Nazis. In 2012 the UBA awarded him the doctorate Honorary.
“Mathematics linked to physics are the most interesting. I am not very much in favor of doing super-abstract research, which can only be understood by half a dozen mathematicians”, said Caffarelli, who is also a member of the scientific advisory committee of the Institute of Mathematical Sciences (ICMAT), in Madrid. “You can’t reach the truth, but at least you can get closer to itto the complexity of reality”, affirmed the mathematician.
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President, Alberto Fernandez, greeted the winner via Twitter: “I greatly congratulate the mathematician Luis A. Caffarelli for this Abel Prize, another example of infinite Argentine talent. Our public education makes us proud.”
The Minister of Science and Technology, Daniel Filmus, He also celebrated that Caffarelli is “world-renowned Argentine talent” and his partner for Education, James Perczykstressed that he is a “graduate and doctorate from the Argentine public university” and “a pride for our country.”
“It is a recognition totally equivalent to the Nobel Prize in other disciplines. Not everything we have to say goes into a tweet. Argentine mathematics is celebrating! Congratulations Louis!”, Pablo Groisman, associate professor of the Department of Mathematics and Assistant Postgraduate Secretary at the Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences of the UBA, shared on his networks.
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For his part, the former rector of the Colegio Nacional Buenos Aires -where Caffarelli studied- and professor of Mathematics and Astronomy and Mathematics and Computing, Gustavo Zorzolitweeted this morning: “Congratulations to Luis Caffarelli, a graduate of the National College of Buenos Aires, who won the Abel Prize, considered the Nobel Prize in Mathematics.”
Video: this is how Luis Caffarelli found out he was the winner
Caffarelli received the news through a video call, in which he was accompanied by his wife Irene Gamba. The mathematician said he felt “surprised” and “happy” and declared that it was “an honor to receive this distinction, which highlights a lifetime of work.”
Through the video you can see the deep emotion that caused his partner, who knows first-hand the work of the mathematician who dedicated his life to his studies.
The Norwegian Academy of Sciences and Letters, which awards the Abel Prize, highlighted the “technically virtuous” results, especially in so-called free-boundary problems, such as those mathematical models of what happens at the interface between water and sea. ice, or an alloy of different molten metals that solidify at different rates.
“Caffarelli’s theorems have radically changed our understanding of classes of nonlinear partial differential equations with wide applications. His results are technically virtuoso and cover many different areas of mathematics and its applications.”, said the president of the Abel Prize Committee, Helge Holden.
Mathematics is everywhere and applies to everything we do
Caffarelli’s advances also made it possible to deepen the Navier-Stokes equations, which since 1845 have described the flow of a viscous fluid, such as oil. These studies are fundamental for the analysis of a person’s blood circulation, the prediction of the movement of oil, financial mathematics or the improvement of the fundamental models that explain the universe.
Caffarelli is the first Latin American to win the Abel Prizean award established in 2002 by the Norwegian government to fill the mathematical gap for the Nobels.
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