[Sir John M. Ball] proposed to me three alternatives: accept [the Fields Medal] and come [to a public ceremony at the International Mathematical Union’s congress in Madrid]; accept and don’t come, and we will send you the medal later; third, I don’t accept the prize. From the very beginning, I told him I have chosen the third one.
It was completely irrelevant for me.
Everybody understood that if the proof is correct then no other recognition is needed.
Manifold Destiny
ReplyDeleteA legendary problem and the battle over who solved it.
by Sylvia Nasar and David Gruber
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/08/28/060828fa_fact2?currentPage=all