The Abel Prize

In 2002, the year marking the bicentennial of Abel's birth, the Norwegian P- liament established the Niels Henrik Abel Memorial Fund with the objective of creating an international prize for outstanding scienti c work in the eld of mathematics-the Abel Prize. In this book we would like to present th [...]
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In 2002, the year marking the bicentennial of Abel's birth, the Norwegian P- liament established the Niels Henrik Abel Memorial Fund with the objective of creating an international prize for outstanding scienti c work in the eld of mathematics-the Abel Prize. In this book we would like to present the Abel Prize and the Abel Laureates of the rst ve years. The book results from an initiative of the Mathematics section of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. It is intended as the rst volume in a series, each volume comprising ve years. The book starts with the history of the Abel Prize-a story that goes back more than a hundred years-written by Abel's biographer, Arild Stubhaug. It is followed by Nils A. Baas' biographical sketch of Atle Selberg; at the opening ceremony of the Abel Bicentennial Conference in Oslo in 2002, an Honorary Abel Prize was presented to Atle Selberg. Thereisonepartforeachoftheyears2003-2007.Eachpartstartswithanauto- ographical piece by the laureate(s).Then follows a text on the laureate's work: Pilar Bayer writes on the work of Jean-Pierre Serre, Nigel Hitchin on Atiyah-Singer's - dexTheorem,HelgeHoldenandPeterSarnakontheworkofPeterLax,TomKorner on Lennart Carleson, and Terry Lyons on Srinivasa Varadhan. Each part contains a complete bibliography and a curriculum vitae, as well as photos-old and new.