ABEL PRIZE FOR JOHN WILLARD MILNOR

                                ABEL PRIZE FOR JOHN WILLARD MILNOR

     The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters has chosen one of the living legends of mathematics, John Willard Milnor of the Institute for Mathematical Sciences in the University of Stony Brook, USA for the award of its prestigious Abel Prize for the year 2011.
    This was announced on Wednesday in Oslo by Norwegian Academy president Oyvind Osterud. Professor Milnor will receive the Prize from His Majesty King Harald at an award ceremony in Oslo on May 24,2011. The award carries 6 million Norwegian Kroner(approx Rs750,000.
   The Prize is given in recognition of contributions of extraordinary depth and influence and has been awarded annually since 2003. The prize is named after the great Norwegian mathematical genius, Niels Henrik Abel (1802-29), often compared with the Indian wizard Srinivasa Ramanujan, who died at a very young age of 26.
   The past Winners include such illustrious names as Jean-Pierre Serr(2004) ,Peter D Lax (2005),Lennart Carleson (2006), Srinivasa S.R Varadhan (2007) ,John Griggs Thompson and Jacques Tits (2008),Mikhail Leonidovich Gromov (2009) and John Torrence Tate(2010).
    The 2011 award is being given to Professor Milnor, as the citation notes, for his pioneering discoveries in topology, geormetry and algebra. He has even made significant contributions in number theory.
   Profesor Milnor was born on February 20,1931, in New Jersey, and did his undergraduation at Princeton University. When he was barely 18 he proved what is known as Fary-Milnor theorem in knot theory.He dis his doctoral work under Ralph Fox in knot groups and after completing his doctorate he continued to work at princeton.
  His most celebrated single result is his proof in 1956 of the existence of 7-dimensional spheres with  non-standard differential structure.. A one sphere is the sphere that one is familiar with in 3-dimensions. An n-sphere is the mathematical abstraction of this idea in higher dimensions. Milnor termed spheres with non-standard differential structures 'exotic spheres.
   Professor Milnor has received all the major awards in Mathematics.He was awarded the Fields Medal in 1962, the Wolf Prize in 1989 and is the only person to have won all the three steele prizes of the American Mathematical Society (AMS) in 1982,2004  and early this year for seminal contribution to research, for mathematical exposition and for lifetime achievement respectively. He also received the U.S National Medal of Science in 1967.

Prof. John Kurakar