The Argentine president, Alberto Fernández, congratulated this Wednesday the mathematician Luis A. Caffarelli for having been distinguished by the Norwegian Academy of Sciences and Letters with the Abel Prize, considered the “Nobel” in mathematics, for his studies on differential equations .
“I greatly congratulate the mathematician Luis A. Caffarelli” for this Abel Prize, “another example of infinite Argentine talent,” Fernández tweeted on his official account. “Our public education makes us proud,” added the president. Caffarelli is the first Spanish-speaking mathematician to receive the Abel Prize in its twenty-year history, which is named after the Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel (1802-1829), and was established by the Parliament of this Scandinavian country in 2002 .
The Abel Committee, made up of five internationally recognized mathematicians, chose Caffarelli, who will receive the award, endowed with 7.5 million Norwegian crowns (659,000 euros, 708,000 dollars), in Oslo on May 23.
Luis Caffarelli’s congrats
“Few other living mathematicians have contributed as much to our understanding of partial differential equations as Luis Caffarelli.
He has introduced new and ingenious techniques, has given evidence of brilliant geometric knowledge and has contributed many fundamental results”, noted the jury.
Caffarelli’s theorems, which is attached to the University of Austin (USA), have “radically” changed the understanding of these equations and his results are “technically virtuous and cover many different areas of mathematics and their applications,” according to the ruling.
Caffarelli (Buenos Aires, 1948) studied mathematics at the university in his hometown, where he received his doctorate in 1972 with a thesis on polynomials, and a year later, he moved to Minnesota (USA) to do postgraduate studies.
His research career has since been spent at American universities, where he has developed “extraordinarily prolific” work, with more than 320 published articles. His numerous awards include the Leroy Steele Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Mathematical Society, the Wolf Prize, and the Shaw Prize.
The Argentine mathematician succeeds American Dennis Sullivan, winner last year for his topology studies, in the prize list. With information from EFE.