On March 22, the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters announced that the 2023 Abel Prize in Mathematics has been awarded to 74-year-old American mathematician of Argentine origin, Luis Caffarelli. He is the first South American scientist to receive this prestigious award.
Nonlinear partial differential equations related to continuous change are employed by scientists to model the natural world. They play a prominent role in various fields, including engineering, physics, economics, and biology.
Mathematician Luis Caffarelli. (Photo: Reuters).
Caffarelli was born in Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, and has lived in the United States since earning his Ph.D. from the University of Buenos Aires in 1972. He is currently a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, USA.
For over five decades, Caffarelli has been a leading name and made significant contributions to the theory of partial differential equations.
The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters praised Caffarelli for his “breakthrough contributions that completely transform our understanding of classes of nonlinear partial differential equations with numerous applications. The combination of profound geometric insights with the clever analytical tools and methods he employs has a significant impact on this field.”
Mathematician Caffarelli expressed his happiness at receiving this award: “Nonlinear differential equations are an important part of science. There has been a continuous development of equations and their applications. I am very pleased that I have made valuable contributions.”
Caffarelli has researched and made outstanding contributions to the theory of nonlinear partial differential equations for over 40 years. (Photo: The Guardian).
Caffarelli has published over 320 papers and mentored more than 30 PhD students. In 2018, one of his young collaborators, Alessio Figalli, won the Fields Medal—the most prestigious award in mathematics, granted only to individuals under 40 years old.
According to information from the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, Caffarelli will receive the 2023 Abel Prize in a ceremony scheduled for May 23 in Oslo, Norway.
Named after the famous Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel (1802 -1829), the Abel Prize is often described as equivalent to the Nobel Prize—an award for which there is no category in mathematics. The prize has been awarded annually since 2003, accompanied by a monetary award of 7.5 million Norwegian kroner (approximately 710,000 USD) and recognizes lifetime achievements in mathematics. In 2022, the Abel Prize was awarded to American mathematician Dennis Sullivan for his research on the structure of links and dynamical systems theory. |
