Fields Medal was introduced in the year 1936 and considered as the most significant honors in Mathematics. Announced once in every four years for two or more mathematicians, the Medal considered as the ‘Nobel Prize’ of mathematics. Unfortunately it is a known fact that mathematical discoveries, progresses or honors are not celebrated as much as that of Nobel Prizes or other Scientific breakthroughs by popular media. Or in other words the public understanding of the
Mapping the Fields Medal winners is a humble data visualization project aiming to introduce the extraordinary mathematical minds, their works and the institutional affiliations supported them explore their ideas. There are primarily three visualizations produced. The first one chronologically display the winners of the Medal and their institutional affiliation when awarded. This visualization not only reveals the prominence of some of the institutions where many of the researches in Mathematics have been happening over the years but also the odd ones. The second and third visualizations came from the questions triggered by the first. Where did these mathematicians born? What are the other institutions they were affiliated before and after winning the Fields Medal?
The visualizations produced seeking answers to these questions revealed an interesting migration pattern bringing a different perspective about their carriers compared to the first visualization produced. As one of the Most prominent and Mathematical figures, David Hilbert said,
“Mathematics knows no races or geographical boundaries; for mathematics, the cultural world is one country”
– David Hilbert, 1971
visualization showing the fields medal winners and the institutions they were affiliated during they awarded the prize.
It was interesting to observe that the first woman to win Fields Medal was Maryam Mirzakhani in the year 2014. Grigori Yakovlevich Perelman, The Russian Mathematician solved the Poincaré conjecture , one of the most complex problems in mathematics that remained unsolved since the early 20th century. He was awarded Fields Medal in the year 2006, but apparently he declined the prize. It interesting to see also he was not affiliated to any institutions when the award was announced. It was surprising to see Edward Witten, who is primarily a Physicist won Fields Medal in 1990, like how the Mathematician John Forbes Nash Jr Won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1994
Visualization showing the migration of Fields medal winners.
Visualization showing the institutions to which Fields Medal winners are affiliated during their carrier.
The data collection and parsing processes involved to create the visualization made us to have an overview about these great mathematical minds and their unparalleled perception about the world and its phenomena. It also helped us understand their personal struggles and sometimes necessary migration to escape from the war and various other Geo-political tensions. The stories of mathematicians, Alexander Grothendieck, Caucher Birkar are all examples that worth the attention.
We see this mapping project more as an introduction towards understanding some of the great mathematical minds, their fields of interests and places where some of the most important researches in Mathematics have been happening. And we be
A mathematician, like a painter or a poet, is a maker of patterns. If his patterns are more permanent than theirs, it is because they are made with ideas.
– G.H. Hardy, 1941
The visualizations are created using the data published on Wikipedia.
High resolution visualization posters are available on request.
Data sources & References
- International Mathematical Union(IMU)
- List of Fields Medal winners by university affiliation
- Fields Medal
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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