Fields Medal and Rolf Nevanlinna Prizes

Fields Medal

At the 1924 International Congress of Mathematicians in Toronto, a resolution was adopted that at each ICM, two gold medals should be awarded to recognize outstanding mathematical achievement. Professor J. C. Fields, a Canadian mathematician who was Secretary of the 1924 Congress, later donated funds establishing the medals which were named in his honor. Consistent with Fields's wish that the awards recognize both existing work and the promise of future achievement, it was agreed to restrict the medals to mathematicians not over forty at the year of the Congress. In 1966 it was agreed that, in light of the great expansion of mathematical research, up to four medals could be awarded at each Congress.

For more details about the origins of the Fields Medal we recommend the article:

Henry S. Tropp, "The Origins and History of the Fields Medal", Historia Mathematica 3 (1976) 167-181.

The following text by Eberhard Knobloch describes the design of the medal:

Obverse:

The inscriptions mean:
(1) "of Archimedes", namely the face of Archimedes.
(2) R(obert) T(ait) M(cKenzie), that is the name of the Canadian sculptor who designed the medal. The correct date would read: "MCMXXXIII" or 1933. The second letter M has to be substituted for the false N.
(3) "To transcend one's spirit and to take hold of (to master) the world".

Reverse:

Rolf Nevanlinna Prize

The Rolf Nevanlinna Prize in mathematical aspects of information science was established by the Executive Committee of the International Mathematical Union IMU in April 1981. It was decided that the prize should consist of a gold medal and a cash prize similar to the ones associated with the Fields Medal and that one prize should be given at each International Congress of Mathematicians.

One year later, in April 1982, the IMU acepted the offer by the University of Helsinki to finance the prize. The prize was named the Rolf Nevanlinna Prize in honor of Rolf Nevanlinna (1895-1980), who had been Rector of the University of Helsinki and President of the IMU and who in the 1950s had taken the initiative to the computer organization at Finnish universities.

On its obverse side, the medal represents Nevanlinna and bears the text "Rolf Nevanlinna Prize". In addition, there is in very small characters "RH 83". RH refers to the Finnish sculptor Raimo Heino (1932-95) who designed the medal, and 83 to the year 1983 when the first medal was minted. On the reverse side, the two figures are related to the University of Helsinki. On the University's seal in the lower right, the text "Universitas Helsingiensis" is readable. The seal is from the 17th century, except for the Cross of Liberty which was added to it in 1940. In the upper left part, the word "Helsinki" is in coded form. The name of the prize winner is engraved on the rim of the medal.

More recently, the Executive Committee of IMU clarified that the Nevanlinna Prize is to be awarded for outstanding contributions in Mathematical Aspects of Information Sciences, including:

1) All mathematical aspects of computer science, e.g. complexity theory, logic of programming languages, machine models, cryptography.

2) Scientific computing, numerical analysis and optimization.

3) Information theory, signal processing, control theory and the modeling of intelligence.

Fields Medals Awarded:

1936

Lars Valerian AHLFORS
Jesse DOUGLAS

1950

Laurent SCHWARTZ
Atle SELBERG

1954

Kunihiko KODAIRA
Jean-Pierre SERRE

1958

Klaus Friedrich ROTH
René THOM

1962

Lars HÖRMANDER
John Willard MILNOR

1966

Michael Francis ATIYAH
Paul Joseph COHEN
Alexander GROTHENDIECK
Stephen SMALE

1970

Alan BAKER
Heisuke HIRONAKA
Serge NOVIKOV
John Griggs THOMPSON

1974

Enrico BOMBIERI
David Bryant MUMFORD

1978

Pierre René DELIGNE
Charles Louis FEFFERMAN
Gregori Alexandrovitch MARGULIS
Daniel G. QUILLEN

1982

Alain CONNES
William P. THURSTON
Shing-Tung YAU

1986

Simon K. DONALDSON
Gerd FALTINGS
Michael H. FREEDMAN

1990

Vladimir DRINFELD
Vaughan F.R. JONES
Shigefumi MORI
Edward WITTEN

1994

Jean BOURGAIN
Pierre-Louis LIONS
Jean-Christophe YOCCOZ
Efim ZELMANOV

1998

Richard E. Borcherds
W. Timothy Gowers
Maxim Kontsevich
Curtis T. McMullen

A silver plate was offered to Andrew J. Wiles as a special tribute from IMU

2002

Vladimir Voevodsky

Laurent Lafforgue