The entire mathematics community eagerly awaits the announcement, at the opening of the ICM 2010, of the Fields Medals (started in 1936) and the Nevanlinna Prize (started in 1982). At the 2006 Congress another award, the Gauss Prize, was added. A new award, the Chern Prize, will be given for the first time in Hyderabad.

President of India with the prize winners

The IMU has been awarding the Fields Medals- generally considered the “Nobel Prize for mathematics” – since 1936, the Nevanlinna Prize in the field of theoretical computer science since 1982, and the Gauss Prize for applied mathematical work since 2006. The Fields Medals and the Nevanlinna Prize are given to young researchers below 40 years of age, in recognition of specific path breaking results. The Gauss Prize recognizes mathematical results that have opened new areas of practical applications.

Fields Medal

Rolf Nevanlinna Prize

Carl Friedrich Gauss Prize for Applications of Mathematics

Chern Medal

IMU awarded its 2006 prizes on August 22, 2006 during the Opening ceremony of the International Congress of Mathematicians in Madrid, Spain.

Chern Medal Award – a new prize in mathematics

In addition to the above three prizes, a new prize – the Chern Medal Award – will be awarded jointly with the Chern Medal Foundation (CMF), for the first time at the opening ceremony of ICM 2010, Hyderabad, India on August 19, 2010 to an individual whose lifelong outstanding achievements in the field of mathematics warrant the highest level of recognition.

The Award is established in memory of the outstanding mathematician Shiing-Shen Chern (1911, Jiaxing, China – 2004, Tianjin, China).

Shiing-Shen Chern

Professor Chern devoted his life to mathematics, both in active research and education, and in nurturing the field whenever the opportunity arose. He obtained fundamental results in all the major aspects of modern geometry and founded the area of global differential geometry. Chern exhibited keen aesthetic tastes in his selection of problems, and the breadth of his work deepened the connections of modern geometry with different areas of mathematics.

The Medal is to be awarded to an individual whose lifelong outstanding achievements in the field of mathematics warrant the highest level of recognition. The Award consists of a medal and a monetary award of 500,000 US dollars. There is a requirement that half of the award shall be donated to organizations of the recipient’s choice to support research, education, outreach or other activities to promote mathematics. Professor Chern was generous during his lifetime in his personal support of the field and it is hoped that this philanthropy requirement for the promotion of mathematics will set the stage and the standard for mathematicians to continue this generosity on a personal level. The laureate will be chosen by a Prize Committee appointed by the IMU and the CMF.

For more information see the Press Release of IMU and the Chern Medal Program Guidelines.

The Chern Medal Program Guidelines also inform about the nomination procedure.

For any other information, please contact

Prof. Dr. Martin Grötschel, Secretary of the IMU

Zuse Institute Berlin

Takustr. 7

D-14195 Berlin, Germany

Phone: +49 (030) 84185-210, +49 (030) 84185-208 (Secretary)

Fax: +49 (030) 84185-269

e-mail: groetschel at zib dot de