Bourgain´s work touches on several central topics of mathematical analysis: the geometry of Banach spaces, convexity in high dimensions, harmonic analysis, ergodic theory, and finally, nonlinear partial differential equations from mathematical physics. In all of this areas, he made spectacular inroads into questions where progress had been blocked for a long time. (Caffarelli, ICM Proc. 1994, p.3)

His contributions cover a variety of areas, from probability theory to partial differential qutotations (PDEs). Within the PDE area he has done several beautiful things in nonlinear quotations. The choice of his problems have always been motivated by applications. (Varadhan, ICM Proc. 1994, p.6)

Yoccoz…est devenu peut-ȇtre le meilleur spécialiste de la Théorie des Systèmes Dynamiques. (Douady, ICM Proc. 1994, p.11)

Efim Zelmanov has received a Fields Medal for the solution of the restricted Burnside-Problem. (Feit, ICM Proc. 1994, p.17)