Ln July 5, the International Mathematical Union (UMI) presented its awards, including the famous Fields Medals, awarded to Hugo Duminil-Copin, June Huh, James Maynard and Maryna Viazovska. These medals are often referred to as the “Nobel of Mathematics”, but that’s not a good comparison. To start with a “detail”, a Nobel laureate receives 10,000,000 Swedish crowns (more than 900,000 euros), while the Fields medal brings in “only” 15,000 Canadian dollars (i.e. 11,000 euros).
But above all, a winner of the Fields Medal must be under 40, which is far from the case for Nobel Prize winners. On the other hand, even if the medal recognizes of course remarkable works, it also expresses the conviction of the jury that the laureate will have major successes in the future. It is a question of encouraging a very promising young mathematician to continue an exceptional start to his career: it is therefore also a bet on the future.
The work of the selection committee is therefore not easy, especially since there are other constraints. The official statutes specify that a maximum of four medals can be awarded, once every four years, and that they must reflect the diversity of mathematics: an almost impossible mission.
In the past, mathematicians often worked alone, but this is no longer the case today, and we can rejoice in that. Unfortunately, two or three collaborators cannot share a medal for joint work. Be that as it may, this award ceremony is a traditional event in the mathematical community, which eagerly awaits the official announcement of the winners and does not hesitate to make predictions in the year that precedes it.
A month ago, a journalist from Monde asked me if I had any information on the winners. I replied that I didn’t have one, but that I was happy about it, because it showed that the selection committee was working in a confidential manner. I still sent him a few names I thought of. A week before the announcement, the journalist knew the names of the winners he had obtained, under embargo, but he could not reveal them. My predictions turned out to be correct…
Confidential work
I know absolutely nothing about the debates which took place and which led to this choice, but I can describe the functioning of this committee, since I was a member of it eight years ago. Without a doubt, this is the most thorough selection of winners in which I have had the opportunity to participate. The committee comprised twelve members, born in eleven different countries. The president is the president of the UMI, but the names of the eleven other members are kept secret until the official announcement of the winners.
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