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The Fields Medal should return to its roots

Forgotten records of mathematics’ best-known prize hold lessons for the future of the discipline, argues historian Michael Barany.
  1. Michael Barany

    1. Michael Barany is a postdoctoral fellow in the Society of Fellows and Department of History, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA.

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Like Olympic medals and World Cup trophies, the best-known prizes in mathematics come around only every four years. Already, maths departments around the world are buzzing with speculation: 2018 is a Fields Medal year.

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Nature 553, 271-273 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-00513-8

References

  1. Barany, M. J. Not. Am. Math. Soc. 62, 15–20 (2015).

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  2. Stern, N. Soc. Stud. Sci. 8, 127–140 (1978).

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  3. Hersh, R. & John-Steiner, V. Loving + Hating Mathematics: Challenging the Myths of Mathematical Life 251–272 (Princeton Univ. Press, 2011).

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  5. Riehm, E. M. & Hoffman, F. Turbulent Times in Mathematics: The Life of J.C. Fields and the History of the Fields Medal (American Mathematical Society & Fields Institute, 2011).

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  6. Barany, M. J, Paumier, A.-S. & Lützen, J. Hist. Math. 44, 367–394 (2017).

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