The Fields Medal

Hello everyone! I think you all have heard at least once about the Fields Medal. Well in this post, I will be sharing information about this very prestigious award!

The Greek mathematician Archimdes (B.C.287~B.C.212) was

engraved onto the medal along with the Latin verse,

"TRANSIRE SVVM PECTVS MVNDOQVE POTIRI."

The Fields Medal is considered one of the most prestigious awards in mathematics; often times, it is viewed as a “Nobel Prize” in the field of mathematics. The Fields Medal is a prize awarded to two, three, or four mathematicians under 40 years of age at the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) hosted by the International Mathematical Union (IMU), a meeting that takes place every four years.

The prize comes with a monetary award, which since 2006 has been C$15,000 (Canadian Dollars). This award was named “Fields,” in the honour of the Canadian mathematician and Professor of the University of Toronto, John Charles FIelds, who played a key role in establishing the award, designing the medal, and funding the monetary component.

The medal was first awarded in 1936 to the Finnish mathematician Lars Ahlfors, who was "Awarded medal for research on covering surfaces related to Riemann surfaces of inverse functions of entire and meromorphic functions. Opened up new fields of analysis." and to the American mathematician Jesse Douglas who "Did important work of the Plateau problem which is concerned with finding minimal surfaces connecting and determined by some fixed boundary." The medal has been awarded every four years since 1950.

This medal was created to give recognition and support to younger mathematical researchers who have made major contributions, and the latin words “TRANSIRE SVVM PECTVS MVNDOQVE POTIRI” on the medal means “Exceed above oneself and grasp the world.”