2018 菲尔兹奖等数学大奖 诸平 2018 年菲尔兹奖众多候选人中还有两位中国人——恽之玮和张伟,他俩为L函数的泰勒展开的高阶项提供了几何解释,其研究成果被认为是过去30年数论领域中最令人兴奋的突破之一。其中张伟对库达拉猜想(Kudla Conjecture)的工作让他在数论领域崭露头角。张伟出生于1981年,今年37岁,目前是麻省理工学院教授,专攻数论领域,所获奖项有2013年的拉马努金奖,2016年的晨兴数学奖,2018年的新视野数学奖等。不过今年已经揭晓的菲尔兹奖与他们无缘。获奖者有4位,他们分别是: Fields Medals 2018 ( 视频 ) The Fields Medal is awarded to recognize outstanding mathematical achievement for existing work and for the promise of future achievement. The medals and cash prizes are funded by a trust established by J.C.Fields at the University of Toronto, which has been supplemented periodically, but is still significantly underfunded. The discrepancy in 2018 was made up by the University of Toronto and the Fields Institute. 2018年的其他数学奖相关信息 2018年罗尔夫· 奈望林纳奖( Rolf Nevanlinna Prize 2018 ) 2018年卡尔•弗里德里希•高斯奖( Carl Friedrich Gauss Prize 2018 ) 2018年陈省身奖( Chern Medal Award 2018 ) 2018年丽娃拉提奖( Leelavati Prize 2018 ) 更多信息,请点击相关链接进行浏览。
1948年他进入Michigan大学学习物理,在核物理课中得到一个F,而他大一大二的大部分课程得到的是B或C。1952年毕业后继续在Michigan大学数学系读研,直到在又一次得到一个C的成绩后,系主任Hildebrant恐吓要开除他,他才开始努力学习,并最终于1957年得到了博士学位,导师是RaoulBott。接着,在Chicago大学做讲师,其间在1958年他证明了著名的球面外翻的定理,1961年证明了广义Poincare猜想而于1966年获得菲尔兹奖。他,就是大名鼎鼎的斯梅尔大师! 斯梅尔喜欢旅行,而且饱览了许多国家的美丽风光。 1956 年对斯梅尔是 不平常的一年,他偕夫人克拉拉一起去墨西哥旅行。他参加了在墨西哥城举行的国际代数拓扑学会议,这是他头一次参加数学会议,也是他第一次进入国际数学界。这次会议对他的影响很大,几乎所有的名家大师都来了,其中有卡当、爱伦堡、斯廷洛德、怀特海等人,他们的工作奠定了战后代数拓扑学的发展新方向。会上一些新秀也都报告了他们最新的工作,像塞尔、托姆、米尔诺,他们都先后获得菲尔兹奖。尤其是他同托姆的会面更是对他的科研方向有着决 定性的意义,开完会以后,托姆到芝加哥大学做报告,而斯梅尔也正好在芝加哥大学找到工作,因此他有机会直接学习托姆的理论。 1958 年到 1960 年,他得到国家科学基金会的奖学金,在普林斯顿高等研究院呆了一年之后,便带着妻子和孩子乘着出租汽车,穿过巴拿马的原始丛林南下,进入 厄瓜多尔 ,在饱览安地斯高原风光之后,从厄瓜多尔首都基多乘小火车经过丛林到瓜亚基尔,然后乘飞机到 巴西 的里约热内卢。在里约热内卢的海滨,经常可以看到一个人,手持草稿纸和铅笔,对着大海思考。他的思想丰富,他有好多思想就是那时在海滩上得到的。在这个海滩上,他想到了一个天才的主意:如果三维的庞加莱猜想难以解决, 高维 的会不会容易些呢? 1961 年的夏天,在基辅的非线性振动会议上,斯梅尔公布了自己对庞加莱猜想的 五维空间 和五维以上的证明,立时引起轰动。他证明了微分拓扑学中最重要的定理之一——广义庞加莱猜想【 1-2 】。庞加莱是 法国 著名数学家,他从 19 世纪末到 20 世纪初开创了组合拓扑学这个方向,是现代代数拓扑学的奠基人。半个世纪过去了,无数天才数学家一次又一次尝试的失败,使得庞加莱猜想成为出了名难证的数学问题之一。然而,因为它是 几何 拓扑研究的基础,数学家们又不能将其撂在一旁。这个猜想当时尚未得到证明 ( 后来佩雷尔曼证明 ) ,成为拓扑学发展的一个严重障碍。三维庞加莱猜想证不出来,四维、五维乃至更高维的所谓广义庞加莱猜想似乎就更加没有希望了。而斯梅尔了不起的地方,就在于他知道三维、四维庞加莱猜想太难,索性绕过它,直接去攻大家认为没什么希望的五维以上的广义庞加莱猜想。他敢想敢干,最后取得了成功。这个伟大的成就,使他成为加州大学柏克利分校教授, 1965 年得到了范布仑奖 ,1966 年获得了菲尔兹奖。 1966 年在莫斯科召开的国际数学家大会上,他应邀做一小时全会报告 ( 数学家大会的最高荣誉 , 另 45 分钟报告和 20 分钟报告 ) ,无数数学家期待的是庞加莱猜想的新的进展和突破。然而,他报告的题目是《微分动力系统》【 3 】,这篇论文可以说是现代微分动力系统的经典著作,它标志着这个新兴学科的诞生。从这时起,大范围分析(全局分析)成为当前最热门的领域,新人才,新结果,层出不穷。到 70 年代,几乎每年都有国际性的动力系统会议召开,这门学科的内容日新月异,发展极快,这显然是与斯梅尔奠基性的工作分不开的。 60 年代后半期,他的科研方向也从纯理论日益趋于联系实际,并解决一系列问题。他靠自己强有力的纯数学工具,研究力学、统计力学、湍流、生物学等许多问题,尤其是研究数理经济学方面获得许多新方法。他在运筹学方面也有新的突破,这表明他的兴趣逐步转向应用数学及其具体问题。 史蒂文·斯梅尔(Steven Smale,1930年7月15日-), 当今世界上最杰出的数学家之一,1966年获得菲尔兹奖,2007年获得沃尔夫奖(迄今为止只有12位数学家同时获得菲尔兹奖和沃尔夫数学奖)。他在微分拓扑、动力系统、混沌理论、非线性分析、计算复杂性、数理经济学和学习理论等众多领域都做出了重要贡献,特别是拓扑和动力系统的工作尤为突出。他成功解决了微分拓扑学中广义庞加莱猜想(n≥5),并创立了现代抽象微分动力系统理论。突破了维数障碍,在高维庞加莱猜想上取得重大进展,并提出了混沌概念的先声——斯梅尔马蹄铁。1998年斯梅尔列出了21世纪的18道数学问题,精神上沿袭了1900年知名的希尔伯特数学问题。斯梅尔的问题有一部分也来自希尔伯特数学问题。为表彰他的贡献,一颗1982年发现的小行星于2000年便以他来命名。 S. Smale, The generalized Poincar é Conjecture in higherdimensions, Bulletion of the AMS, 66(1960)373-375. S. Smale, Generalized Poincar é Conjecture in dimensionsgreater that 4, Annals of Mathematics, 74(1961)391-406. S. Smale, Differentiable dynamical systems, Bulletin of the AMS 73(1967) 747-817. ------------------------ 读了这个科普故事,有如下几个问题值得商讨: (1) 封闭式的研究生管理模式是否会阻碍研究生原创思维? (2) 没有兴趣的科研能走多远? (3) 科研的路很长,不要进入科研前的 20 年累的跑不动了? (4) 这个专业和方向不喜欢,为啥不能换自己喜欢的方向? (5) 培养个性思维很重要,大师云集都独立于自己的学派? (6) 菲尔兹奖、诺贝尔奖是否预先培养而来? ……………… DIFFERENTIABLE DYNAMICAL SYSTEMS1.pdf ( 点击下载 经典之作 ) 附录(部分代表作): A note on open maps, Proceedings of the AMS , 8 (1957), pp. 391--393. A Vietoris mapping theorem for homotopy, Proceedings of the AMS , 8 (1957), pp. 604--610. Regular curves on Riemannian manifolds, Transactions of the AMS , 87 (1958), pp. 492--512. On the immersions of manifolds in Euclidean space (with R. K. Lashof), Annals of Mathematics , 68 (1958), pp. 562--583. Self-intersections of immersed manifolds (with R. K. 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Progress in Mathematics , Birkhauser, 109 (1993), pp. 267--285. Complexity of Bezout's Theorem III: Condition number and packing (with Mike Shub), Journal of Complexity , 9 (1993), pp. 4--14. What is Chaos, in Nobel Conference XXVI, Chaos the New Science , ed. J. Holte Gustavus Adolphus College, University Press in American, (1993), pp. 89--104. Complexity of Bezout's Theorem V: Polynomial Time (with Mike Shub), Theoretical Computer Science , 133 (1994), pp. 141--164 Separation of Complexity Classes in Koiran's Weak Model (with Felipé Cucker and Mike Shub), Theoretical Computer Science , 133 (1994), pp. 3--14. Complexity of Bezout's Theorem IV: Probabability of success; Extensions (with Mike Shub), SIAM Jour. of Numerical Analysis (1996). On the Intractibility of Hilbert's Nullstellensatz and an Algebraic Version of NP=P? (with Mike Shub) Duke Math Jour to appear. Complexity and Real Computation: A Manifesto (with L. Blum, F. Cucker and M. Shub) International Journal of Bifurcation and Chaos Vol. 6 No.1 (1996). 注 : 本博文节选于作者 2010 年在新浪博客里写的 Smale 传记(这里略去了大部分理论成果介绍,以便中学生和大学生阅读),原博文已被众多网友转载。