Sir Michael Atiyah shares memory of Fields win

August 3, 2018, 7:27 pm

Sir Michael Atiyah shares memory of Fields win

Attending his first International Congress of Mathematics (ICM) for more than a decade, esteemed mathematician Sir Michael Atiyah said he was both pleased and impressed by the evolution of the international math meeting evident at ICM 2018.

“They’ve changed a lot. There are more polished presentations, more outreach,” he said. “In the early days it was scholarly, old-fashioned, and it’s gradually become modernized, more high tech, more accessible – which of course is a good thing. Like all other organisations, it has to adapt to the times.”

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At 89 years old, Atiyah is one of the most prolific mathematicians alive, having won awards including the De Morgan Medal in 1980, the 1988 Copley Medal and the 2004 Abel Prize, among others. But despite the numerous awards he has earned over his career, he still cherishes his memories of collecting his 1966 Fields Medal.

“It was a grand affair,” he says. “I was a bit overwhelmed, especially because although I was one of four people to get a Fields Medal that year, only two of them turned up. It was myself and Paul Cohen.”

The other two medalists, Alexander Grothendieck and Stephen Smale, didn’t attend the 1966 award ceremony. Grothendieck, a notoriously reclusive mathematician specialized in algebraic geometry who later went into self-exile, refused to attend the ceremony in Moscow in protest of the Russian government. Stephen Smale, an American and also a famous activist, had a hiccup with his visa arrangements and arrived a day late.

Atiyah remembers talking to Smale as the American mathematician was making his plans for the ceremony. “When he came to Moscow, he told me the day before that he was going to go to Moscow University, and denounce both the Americans and the Russians,” he said, remembering his sense of panic when Smale asked him to join. He declined.

“As he promised, he walked up the stairs at Moscow University, stood up, and started to make a speech. Within 3 seconds, four big men, armed, came and took him down. They hustled him into a big black car and took him away,” he said. But half an hour later, the car returned, and out bounced a beaming Smale, Atiyah remembered, bearing a book gifted to him by the university’s rector. “So I could have joined him, and I would have escaped!”

Sir Atiyah praised this year’s presentations, and said he is looking forward to giving his own on Monday. “Having heard these lectures, I know I have to give a good presentation!” he joked. His lecture is scheduled for Monday, August 6 at ICM 2018.

For aspiring mathematicians, Sir Atiyah said, “Listen to what your elders say, but do your own thing. You must know about the past, but to go forwards mathematics has to be made of fresh ideas.”