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Regarding Zhang's age: Most Fields medalists these days are very close to exceeding 40 years. Wiles himself just a special silver medal, because of that - which

Regarding Zhang's age: Most Fields medalists these days are very close to exceeding 40 years. Wiles himself just a special silver medal, because of that - which I think is outrageous age discrimination. Mind you he didn't get the silver medal because his results were a bit less spectacular than those of the winners, but rather they were so groundbreaking he couldn't be ignored, but because he was just over 40 they had to downgrade thr medal to a silver one (I guess in order to not be in conflict with the rules that the organization that awards the Fields medal has). This is part of a general trend. As the world population ages, the number of people being able to achieve world-class performance later in life increases. One can see this spectacularly in sports, where older and older people win medals (for example: https://www.npr.org/2022/02/12/1080338798/older-athletes-break-records-at-the-2022-beijing-olympics https://www.npr.org/2022/02/12/1080338798/older-athletes-bre... ) The Fields committee would probably do good updating their statutes, in order to not be so out of step with the times...

mabbo 4y ago
My understanding is that the Fields medal was always meant to be awarded to someone young and on their way up. But then it became the medal, the Nobel prize of math. Maybe we just need a new Nobel in math.
- dkislyuk 4y ago
  The hope is that the Abel Prize becomes the "Nobel Prize of Mathematics", as it is directly modeled after it.
throwaway81523 4y ago
> Most Fields medalists these days are very close to exceeding 40 years They are usually spotted at a much younger age, and they get the medal when they are almost 40 because after that it will be too late. I.e. if there are several deserving mathematicians you give the medal to the one where the clock is about to run out, since the others will have more shots at it.

mabbo 4y ago

My understanding is that the Fields medal was always meant to be awarded to someone young and on their way up. But then it became the medal, the Nobel prize of math. Maybe we just need a new Nobel in math.

dkislyuk 4y ago
The hope is that the Abel Prize becomes the "Nobel Prize of Mathematics", as it is directly modeled after it.

throwaway81523 4y ago

> Most Fields medalists these days are very close to exceeding 40 years They are usually spotted at a much younger age, and they get the medal when they are almost 40 because after that it will be too late. I.e. if there are several deserving mathematicians you give the medal to the one where the clock is about to run out, since the others will have more shots at it.