DesertFox
03-28-2004, 04:43 PM
Sir Michael Atiyah and Isadore Singer have been awarded the Abel Prize for their outstanding work in mathematics.
The UK and US researchers developed what is now referred to as the Atiyah-Singer theorem about 40 years ago.
It concerns the use of differential equations and has allowed physicists to develop new theories about the cosmos.
The honour, from the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, was set up to mark a field of scientific endeavour that is overlooked by the Nobel Prizes.
In its citation for the £480,000 prize, the academy said their theorem "is one of the great landmarks of 20th Century mathematics, influencing profoundly many of the most important later developments in topology, differential geometry and quantum field theory".
More (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3571155.stm)
The UK and US researchers developed what is now referred to as the Atiyah-Singer theorem about 40 years ago.
It concerns the use of differential equations and has allowed physicists to develop new theories about the cosmos.
The honour, from the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, was set up to mark a field of scientific endeavour that is overlooked by the Nobel Prizes.
In its citation for the £480,000 prize, the academy said their theorem "is one of the great landmarks of 20th Century mathematics, influencing profoundly many of the most important later developments in topology, differential geometry and quantum field theory".
More (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3571155.stm)