Conditions of The Award
The Fields Medal is often described as the "Nobel Prize of Mathematics" for being traditionally regarded as the most prestigious award in the field of mathematics; however, in contrast to the actual Nobel Prize, the Fields Medal is awarded only every four years. The Medal also has an age limit: a recipient's 40th birthday must not occur before 1 January of the year in which the Fields Medal is awarded. As a result some great mathematicians have missed it by having done their best work (or having had their work recognized) too late in life. The 40-year rule is based on Fields' desire that
…while it was in recognition of work already done, it was at the same time intended to be an encouragement for further achievement on the part of the recipients and a stimulus to renewed effort on the part of others.The monetary award is much lower than the 8,000,000 Swedish kronor (roughly $1,170,000 Canadian) given with each Nobel prize as of 2012. Other major awards in mathematics, such as the Abel Prize and the Chern Medal, have a large monetary prize like a Nobel.
Read more about this topic: Fields Medal
Famous quotes containing the words conditions of, conditions and/or award:
“The Settlement ... is an experimental effort to aid in the solution of the social and industrial problems which are engendered by the modern conditions of life in a great city. It insists that these problems are not confined to any one portion of the city. It is an attempt to relieve, at the same time, the overaccumulation at one end of society and the destitution at the other ...”
—Jane Addams (1860–1935)
“In a country where misery and want were the foundation of the social structure, famine was periodic, death from starvation common, disease pervasive, thievery normal, and graft and corruption taken for granted, the elimination of these conditions in Communist China is so striking that negative aspects of the new rule fade in relative importance.”
—Barbara Tuchman (1912–1989)
“The award of a pure gold medal for poetry would flatter the recipient unduly: no poem ever attains such carat purity.”
—Robert Graves (1895–1985)