Why is there no Nobel in mathematics?

https://cs.uwaterloo.ca/~alopez-o/math-faq/node50.html

by nilmonibasak • 13 years ago

47 44 13 years ago

cs.uwaterloo.ca

daniel-cussen• 13 years ago

There is the Abel prize, granted by the Norwegian government, of a similar sum: $1,000,000 USD.

misnome• 13 years ago

Also, the Fields medal

andyjohnson02• 13 years ago

The Fields Medal is comparable to the Nobel awards in terms of reputation, but not in other ways. For example, it is awarded only every four years, recipients must be under 40 years of age, and the prize money is "only" CAD$15,000.

(Edit: CAN$ -> CAD$ - Thanks @alanctgardner2.)

muxxa• 13 years ago

The Fields medal is deliberately not open to Mathematicians over the age of 40 to encourage young Mathematicians. Very depressing for older Mathematicians. Andrew Wiles was too old to win it, and Erdös is not a Field medalist (although not sure if that's because of age or oversight).

topbanana• 13 years ago

Can you prove there isn't?

andyjohnson02• 13 years ago

Google cache entry, since the link is currently down:

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https:/...

stuaxo• 13 years ago

It's OK, there isn't one in economics either, they just stole the name..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Memorial_Prize_in_Economi...

rm9992• 13 years ago

That's a little misleading - despite some controversy it's a de facto nobel prize:

it is identified with [the original nobel prizes], and prizes are announced with and awarded at the same ceremony
The Prize is awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences "in accordance with the rules governing the award of the Nobel Prizes instituted through his [Alfred Nobel's] will"

curlyquote• 13 years ago

The award’s real name is the “Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.” It was not established by Nobel, but supposedly in memory of Nobel. It’s a ruse and a PR trick, and I mean that literally. And it was done completely against the wishes of the Nobel family.
Members of the Nobel family are among the harshest, most persistent critics of the economics prize, and members of the family have repeatedly called for the prize to be abolished or renamed. In 2001, on the 100th anniversery of the Nobel Prizes, four family members published a letter in the Swedish paper Svenska Dagbladet, arguing that the economics prize degrades and cheapens the real Nobel Prizes.
Most recently, in 2004, three prominent Swedish scientists and members of the Nobel committee published an open letter in a Swedish newspaper savaging the fraudulent “scientific” credentials of the Swedish Central Bank Prize in Economics. “The economics prize diminishes the value of the other Nobel prizes. If the prize is to be kept, it must be broadened in scope and be disassociated with Nobel,” they wrote in the letter, arguing that achievements of most of the economists who win the prize are so abstract and disconnected from the real world as to utterly meaningless.

If you'd like to read about the history of the scam that is the "Nobel Prize in Economics", there's plenty more in this article: http://www.alternet.org/economy/there-no-nobel-prize-economi...

001sky• 13 years ago

In his speech at the 1974 Nobel Banquet Friedrich Hayek stated that if he had been consulted whether to establish a Nobel Prize in economics he would "have decidedly advised against it"[23][27] primarily because "the Nobel Prize confers on an individual an authority which in economics no man ought to possess... This does not matter in the natural sciences. Here the influence exercised by an individual is chiefly an influence on his fellow experts; and they will soon cut him down to size if he exceeds his competence. But the influence of the economist that mainly matters is an influence over laymen: politicians, journalists, civil servants and the public generally."[27]

conformal• 13 years ago

there is less money in mathematics than in the sciences, unless you're the NSA or similar ;)

that said, i have a history as a math and physics geek and am disappointed to see a more limited patronage of mathematics compared to the sciences. mathematics would not have advanced the same way it did without substantial patronage from the european ruling class.

tcskeptic• 13 years ago

Goldman Sachs would disagree.

Mikeb85• 13 years ago

Unless you want to work for a hedge fund, in which case there's a ton of money to be made in mathematics...

xbryanx• 13 years ago

As an earth sciences student I heard exactly the same myth about Nobel being cuckold by a geologist, explaining why there was no prize in geology. It's funny to see that the myth knows no disciplinary boundaries.

ihsw• 13 years ago

Because the Nobel prizes are inherently political -- scientists and governments alike needed to justify the enormous investment in the LHC, and what better way than a token Nobel award?

The LHC may be worth the investment but the Nobel prizes aren't any indicator of it.

SkyMarshal• 13 years ago

The Nobel has been around longer than the LHC, they have nothing to do with each other.

icebraining• 13 years ago

Whether a public work like the LHC is worth the investment is a political decision. A award that only measured its scientific accomplishments could never tell you whether it was worth the investment or not.

m4tthumphrey• 13 years ago

This is very strange timing for me, I was positive there was a Nobel in maths and nearly said that instead of Medicine as the final quiz question last night! Would have cost me £300 if I did and this thread would have been horrible.

theorique3• 13 years ago

That's covered by the Fields medal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fields_Medal

mathattack2• 13 years ago

The fields medal came 30+ years after the Nobels, though. The article explains why it wasn't there to begin with. If there was a Nobel for math, perhaps the Fields Medal would have been for another subject, or not created at all.

nonchalance• 13 years ago

Fields medal is an award that explicitly targets younger mathematicians (below 40), whereas the nobel has no such stipulation

mikecb2• 13 years ago

The Fields medal for Economics is the John Bates Clark medal. I don't recall how many who win the Clark go on to win the Riksbank Nobel, but it's a lot.

mathattack2• 13 years ago

However, the story of some rivalry over a woman is obviously much more amusing, and that's why it will probably continue to be repeated.

Great storytellers never let facts get in the way of a good yarn!

forgottenpaswrd• 13 years ago

When Nobel created the price there were not computers, so Math was very similar to Philosophy, it became harder and harder to make great discoveries by the law of diminishing returns, while with other sciences it was different.

Why is there no Nobel in mathematics?

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