A professor at Oxford University, Sir Andrew Wiles has been awarded £500,000 prize because he easily cracked a 300-year-old mystery mathematical problem for academics known as ‘epochal moment’.
Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters has awarded him the Abel Prize for his proof of Fermat’s Theorem, which was published in the year 1994. This report was published on March 18, 2016.
This 62-year-old professor would be awarded a cheque of 6 million Norwegian Krone and the award from Norway’s Crown Prince Haakon in the month of May in Oslo.
Sir Andrew expresses gratitude and says it is an honor to receive this Prize and join the group of previous laureates who have made immense contributions to this field.
This equation was his passion since a long time, and he overwhelmed when he solved it. He always hoped that his solution would inspire several young people to opt for mathematics and work on the challenges of this fascinating and beautiful subject.
The academy stated that they awarded this prize to Sir Andrew as it was a stunning proof of Fermat’s Last Theorem and opened a new chapter in number theory. This breakthrough was made by Sir Andrew while he was working in Princeton.
This was first formulated by Pierre de Fermat, the French mathematician in 1637 and the theorem states that there are no whole number solutions to this equation which reads xn+yn= zn when the value of n is greater than 2.
Not only was ‘Wiles’ proof a turning point in his career but was also an epochal moment. The academy stated that culmination of this remarkable journey began three decades earlier.
This Prize was created in the year 2002 and is named after Niels Henrik Abel, the Norwegian mathematician, who died in the year 1829.
