Abel Prize

• 20 Mar 2019

Karen Uhlenbeck, a mathematician and professor at the University of Texas, has been awarded Abel Prize for 2019. It's the first time the prize has gone to a woman.

• She has been awarded the prize for her work in geometric partial differential equations, gauge theory and integrable systems, and for the fundamental impact of her work on analysis, geometry and mathematical physics.
• The Abel Prize was established by the Norwegian government in 2002 on the occasion of the 200^th birth anniversary of the 19th century Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel. The Abel Prize recognizes contributions to the field of mathematics that are of extraordinary depth and influence.
• The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters awards the Abel Prize based on a recommendation from the Abel committee. The prize carries a cash award of 6 million Norwegian kroner ($7,03,000) and has been awarded annually since 2003.
• In addition to honouring outstanding mathematicians, the Abel Prize also contributes towards raising the status of mathematics in society and stimulating the interest of children and young people in mathematics.
• There is no Nobel Prize in mathematics, and for decades, the most prestigious awards in math were the Fields Medals, awarded in small batches every four years to the most accomplished mathematicians who are 40 or younger. Maryam Mirzakhani, in 2014, is the only woman to receive a Fields Medal.
• Along with the Fields Medal, which is awarded every four years at the Congress of the International Mathematical Union (IMU), Abel Prize is one of the world's most prestigious maths prizes in the field of mathematics.