Posted on 03/28/2010 1:40:12 AM PDT by bruinbirdman
Inside the world of Grigory Perelman: the man who solved the world's toughest maths problem proves to be a puzzle himself.
He has been called "the cleverest man in the world" and shook academia to its foundations when he announced he had solved a fiendish mathematical problem that had baffled the planet's best brains for a century.
Yet Grigory Perelman, a 43-year-old Russian mathematician, has consciously spurned plaudits and wealth to subsist like a hermit. He lives in a 2-bedroom flat with his elderly mother in a dilapidated Soviet-era tower block in St. Petersburg, while neighbours complain that his own studio flat, which he seldom uses, has become a breeding ground for cockroaches.
Now he has proved again, and in spectacular fashion, that he despises society's conventional norms. Picking up the telephone last week, the bearded genius, who is jobless, found himself being offered an academic prize worth $1 million.
He politely but tersely told the prestigious American institute offering him the prize that he would have to consider whether he wanted to accept the money or not.
"He said he would let me know at some point," Jim Carlson, President of the Clay Mathematics Institute, told The Sunday Telegraph.
"He did not give a sense of timing but I do not expect it will be tomorrow. He is more than extremely brief. He does not say too much," he added, explaining that Mr Perelman had not said why he would need to think about such a windfall.
"It is not every day that a person even entertains turning down a million dollars."
The Russian has turned down high honours before. In 2006, he was offered and declined the Fields Medal, the mathematical world's equivalent of a Nobel Prize. He said at the time he was
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Does this guy end every conversation with, “I don’t always drink beer. But when I do, I prefer Dos Equis. Stay thirsty my friend?”
BTW, he should take the money and use it to get a make over.
He turned down the Fields Medal? Wow.
anyone ever wondered why theres so many smart Jews
This man is completely amazing, but 10 bucks says he’s never been laid. Any takers?
Wonderful story. Perhaps there is autism involved; people with this condition can be frighteningly intelligent. But it’s not for me to make a diagnosis from afar, of course.
He’s a real individual, an authentic person, who values personal choices more than conventional societal routines.
SNORT!!!!
Excellent!
Neither was Newton.
He seems to be functional enough — and antisocial enough — that he might have Asperger’s Syndrome and not full-blown autism.
Interesting guy. Brilliant.
Yes, you’re completely right. I was thinking of Asperger’s too. Full autism would possibly have hampered him in publishing his work and presenting it to the outside world.
lol
Amazing fellow. Take the contrast between Zer0 and the genius. Both are celebs of a sort.
One is real one is false.
Wisdom and character with virtue.
A month and he'll be begging for the million and the medal.
Somehow I am not surprised at this. I am sure somewhere there is a top rate scientist that doubts globull warming that has been voted out too.
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