The highest point of the International Congress of Mathematicians is the announcement of prize winners at the opening ceremony. This just occurred on August 13, 2014 in Seoul, Korea, where the President of Korea, Park Geun-hye, presented the IMU awards (a medal and a cheque for each of the prize winners): Fields Medal, Rolf Nevanlinna Prize, Carl Friedrich Gauss Prize, Chern Medal and Leelavati Prize. The 2014 prize winners are:

FIELDS MEDAL (recognizing outstanding mathematical achievement):
recipients are listed in alphabetical order of last names:

- Artur Avila of CNRS Paris (France) and IMPA (Brasil)
for his profound contributions to dynamical systems theory, which have changed the face of the field, using the powerful idea of renormalization as a unifying principle

- Manjul Bhargava of Princeton University (USA)
for developing powerful new methods in the geometry of numbers, which he applied to count rings of small rank and to bound the average rank of elliptic curves.

- Martin Hairer of  Warwick University (UK)
for his outstanding contributions to the theory of stochastic partial differential equations, and in particular for the creation of a theory of regularity structures for such equations.

- Maryam Mirzakhani of Stanford University (USA)
for her outstanding contributions to the dynamics and geometry of Riemann surfaces and their moduli spaces.

ROLF NEVANLINNA PRIZE (honoring distinguished achievements in mathematical aspects of information science):

- Subhash Khot of New York University (USA)
for his prescient definition of the “Unique Games” problem,and leading the effort to understand its complexity and its pivotal role in the study of efficient approximation of optimization problems; his work has led to breakthroughs in algorithmic design and approximation hardness, and to new exciting interactions between computational complexity, analysis and geometry.

CARL FRIEDRICH GAUSS PRIZE (for outstanding mathematical contributions with significant impact outside of mathematics):

- Stanley Osher of University of California (USA)
for his influential contributions to several fields in applied mathematics, and for his far-ranging inventions that have changed our conception of physical, perceptual, and mathematical concepts, giving us new tools to apprehend the world.

CHERN MEDAL (awarded to an individual whose accomplishments warrant the highest level of recognition for outstanding achievements in the field of mathematics):

- Phillip Griffiths of Institute of Advanced Studies (USA)
for his groundbreaking and transformative development of transcendental methods in complex geometry, particularly his seminal work in Hodge theory and periods of algebraic varieties.

LEELAVATI PRIZE, sponsored by Infosys (for outstanding contributions to public outreach in mathematics by an individual):

- Adrian Paenza of Buenos Aires University (Argentina)
for his decisive contributions to changing the mind of a whole country about the way it perceives mathematics in daily life, and in particular for his books, his TV programs, and his unique gift of enthusiasm and passion in communicating the beauty and joy of mathematics.

More details on the prizes including biodata, laudations, and work profiles of the prize winners, can be found at:
http://www.icm2014.org/prizes
On the IMU Homepage
provides access to the PowerPoint presentation shown in the award ceremony and lists the members of the various prize selection committees.

Details about the physical medals and the cash awards can be found here. The ICM is also hosting the ICM EMMY NOETHER LECTURE. The 2014 lecturer is Georgia Benkart from the University of Wisconsin, for her fundamental contributions to several branches of Lie theory.

IMU and the international mathematical community congratulate the winners!