The mathematical genius has not communicated with colleagues for a long time; over the years, less and less is known about him.
Petersburg mathematician Grigory Perelman celebrates his anniversary. He is 55 years old. The celebration will be quiet – there will be no loud speeches and restaurants. After all, as you know, the hero of the day does not like noise and increased attention to himself.
Gregory was born on June 13, 1966, his talent for mathematics showed up early. He was admitted to the Faculty of Mathematics of Leningrad State University without exams. Being engaged in scientific work, after the collapse of the USSR, Perelman traveled a lot around the United States, over the years becoming more and more ascetic and detached from society. Despite a flurry of invitations from foreign universities in the 90s, he remained in Russia – according to rumors, all this time he lived and lives in a small apartment in Kupchino (a sleeping area in the south of St. Petersburg) with his mother. American colleagues who observed him at home while traveling around the States noted his almost fantastic austerity: the mathematician ate almost one bread and cheese. The only known passion of Perelman, besides mathematics, is called playing the violin – and it seems like he has a good command of the instrument.
In 1996, the European Mathematical Society awarded Perelman his first international prize, but for some unknown reason he refused to receive it. In 2002-2003, Perelman published on a special service a solution to the problem that Poincaré posed with his theory at the beginning of the 20th century, and Perelman’s work was elegant and laconic. The mathematician hates the bureaucracy of the scientific community, therefore, his calculations never made it to the status scientific journals. Scientists from all over the world were engaged in their confirmation in the next few years. It was after those publications that Perelman again went to the United States, where he personally explained to mathematicians what he had in mind.
But by 2005, he completely stopped social life, even quit his own institute, cut off contacts with colleagues. Then, as they said, his mother was ill, and he settled with her in the merchant’s apartment. In 2006 he was awarded the Fields Prize for his contribution to geometry, but he also refused to receive it, as well as the Millennium Prize a year later, where he was actually entitled to a million dollars. Then the comment of the mathematician was leaked to the press – he said that he did not agree with the “mathematical community”, in particular, that this community did not recognize the contribution of the American mathematician Hamilton to the solution of the problem, which Perelman himself considered equal to his. Perelman is interested in elusive, alternative, parallel solutions of even known problems. Before proving the Poincaré conjecture, he proved the soul conjecture.
Several years ago, information appeared that Perelman moved to Sweden – but the version according to which he goes there to collaborate with scientists looks more reliable, because his younger sister lives there, who also made a career as a mathematician, and continues to care for his sick mother in St. Petersburg. They live poorly. Their father emigrated to Israel in the early 90s, the mother and children then stayed in St. Petersburg.
Now, according to rumors, the mathematician still lives in the same apartment of the merchant. Few online photos, where Perelman was photographed outside his house, show a man in a jacket opening the front door of an ordinary high-rise building.
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