7 ms·
Why is there no Nobel in mathematics?
- daniel-cussen 13y agoThere is the Abel prize, granted by the Norwegian government, of a similar sum: $1,000,000 USD.
- misnome 13y agoAlso, the Fields medal
- andyjohnson0 13y agoThe Fields Medal is comparable to the Nobel awards in terms of reputation, but not in other ways. For example, it is awarded only every four years, recipients must be under 40 years of age, and the prize money is "only" CAD$15,000. (Edit: CAN$ -> CAD$ - Thanks @alanctgardner2.)
- alanctgardner2 13y agoJust a note, the symbol for CAnadian Dollars is CAD, not CAN.
- muxxa 13y agoThe Fields medal is deliberately not open to Mathematicians over the age of 40 to encourage young Mathematicians. Very depressing for older Mathematicians. Andrew Wiles was too old to win it, and Erdös is not a Field medalist (although not sure if that's because of age or oversight).
- shawabawa3 13y agorelavent abstruse goose: http://abstrusegoose.com/518 http://abstrusegoose.com/518 I honestly couldn't believe that was really a rule for the fields medal. Aren't mathematical breakthroughs by over 40s rare enough as it is?
- Angostura 13y agoDo the rules explicitly say whether the age limit is in base 10?
- bnegreve 13y agoI assume it says "forty" which is enough to avoid this kind of ambiguity. Edit: Actually no, quoting the official website [1]: > A candidate's 40th birthday must not occur before January 1st of the year of the Congress at which the Fields Medals are awarded. [1] http://www.mathunion.org/general/prizes/fields/details/ http://www.mathunion.org/general/prizes/fields/details/
- judk 13y agoI don't think Wiles is depressed by the lack of a Nobel for his work.
- theorique 13y agoAge is but a fever chill that every physicist must fear. He's better dead than living still when once he's past his thirtieth year. (PAM Dirac)
- huxley 13y agoLikewise, the Nobel Prizes can't be awarded posthumously which is a terrible discouragement to the brilliant dead.
- topbanana 13y agoCan you prove there isn't?
- andyjohnson0 13y agoGoogle cache entry, since the link is currently down: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https://cs.uwaterloo.ca/~alopez-o/math-faq/node50.html http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https:/...
- stuaxo 13y agoIt's OK, there isn't one in economics either, they just stole the name.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Memorial_Prize_in_Economic_Sciences#Controversies_and_criticisms http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Memorial_Prize_in_Economi...
- rm999 13y agoThat's a little misleading - despite some controversy it's a de facto nobel prize: >it is identified with [the original nobel prizes], and prizes are announced with and awarded at the same ceremony >The Prize is awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences "in accordance with the rules governing the award of the Nobel Prizes instituted through his [Alfred Nobel's] will"
- curlyquote 13y ago>The award’s real name is the “Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.” It was not established by Nobel, but supposedly in memory of Nobel. It’s a ruse and a PR trick, and I mean that literally. And it was done completely against the wishes of the Nobel family. >Members of the Nobel family are among the harshest, most persistent critics of the economics prize, and members of the family have repeatedly called for the prize to be abolished or renamed. In 2001, on the 100th anniversery of the Nobel Prizes, four family members published a letter in the Swedish paper Svenska Dagbladet, arguing that the economics prize degrades and cheapens the real Nobel Prizes. >Most recently, in 2004, three prominent Swedish scientists and members of the Nobel committee published an open letter in a Swedish newspaper savaging the fraudulent “scientific” credentials of the Swedish Central Bank Prize in Economics. “The economics prize diminishes the value of the other Nobel prizes. If the prize is to be kept, it must be broadened in scope and be disassociated with Nobel,” they wrote in the letter, arguing that achievements of most of the economists who win the prize are so abstract and disconnected from the real world as to utterly meaningless. If you'd like to read about the history of the scam that is the "Nobel Prize in Economics", there's plenty more in this article: http://www.alternet.org/economy/there-no-nobel-prize-economics http://www.alternet.org/economy/there-no-nobel-prize-economi...
- conformal 13y agothere is less money in mathematics than in the sciences, unless you're the NSA or similar ;) that said, i have a history as a math and physics geek and am disappointed to see a more limited patronage of mathematics compared to the sciences. mathematics would not have advanced the same way it did without substantial patronage from the european ruling class.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- xbryanx 13y agoAs an earth sciences student I heard exactly the same myth about Nobel being cuckold by a geologist, explaining why there was no prize in geology. It's funny to see that the myth knows no disciplinary boundaries.
- ihsw 13y agoBecause the Nobel prizes are inherently political -- scientists and governments alike needed to justify the enormous investment in the LHC, and what better way than a token Nobel award? The LHC may be worth the investment but the Nobel prizes aren't any indicator of it.
- SkyMarshal 13y agoThe Nobel has been around longer than the LHC, they have nothing to do with each other.
- icebraining 13y agoWhether a public work like the LHC is worth the investment is a political decision. A award that only measured its scientific accomplishments could never tell you whether it was worth the investment or not.
- m4tthumphrey 13y agoThis is very strange timing for me, I was positive there was a Nobel in maths and nearly said that instead of Medicine as the final quiz question last night! Would have cost me £300 if I did and this thread would have been horrible.
- theorique 13y agoThat's covered by the Fields medal. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fields_Medal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fields_Medal
- mathattack 13y agoThe fields medal came 30+ years after the Nobels, though. The article explains why it wasn't there to begin with. If there was a Nobel for math, perhaps the Fields Medal would have been for another subject, or not created at all.
- nonchalance 13y agoFields medal is an award that explicitly targets younger mathematicians (below 40), whereas the nobel has no such stipulation
- mikecb 13y agoThe Fields medal for Economics is the John Bates Clark medal. I don't recall how many who win the Clark go on to win the Riksbank Nobel, but it's a lot.
- mathattack 13y agoHowever, the story of some rivalry over a woman is obviously much more amusing, and that's why it will probably continue to be repeated. Great storytellers never let facts get in the way of a good yarn!
- forgottenpaswrd 13y agoWhen Nobel created the price there were not computers, so Math was very similar to Philosophy, it became harder and harder to make great discoveries by the law of diminishing returns, while with other sciences it was different.