2009年度阿贝尔奖公布:俄裔法国数学家Gromov因“对几何学革命性的贡献”获奖

来源：科学网 www.sciencenet.cn

北京时间3月26日下午7点，2009年度阿贝尔奖（Abel）公布，65岁的俄裔法
国数学家Mikhail Gromov因其“对几何学革命性的贡献”获得该奖。奖金95万美元。

Gromov目前供职于法国高等科学研究所（IHES），被公认在辛几何和黎曼几何
领域作出了贡献，这二者与数学物理学，如广义相对论和弦论紧密相关。他也被公认为
“几何群论”建立了现代研究，几何群论将距离和曲率的概念引入了有限代数结构的研
究。美国数学会主席George Andrews说，Gromov的研究“对于几何学具有巨大的
影响，并延伸到了分析和代数的应用之中。他的获奖实至名归”。

阿贝尔奖被称为“数学界的诺贝尔奖”，2003年由挪威设立，以挪威天才数学
家阿贝尔命名。每年颁发给那些在数学领域作出杰出贡献的科学家，获奖者没有年龄的限
制，颁奖典礼每年六月在奥斯陆举行。设立这项奖金的宗旨在于提高数学在社会中的地
位，同时激励青少年学习数学的兴趣。（科学网 梅进/编译）

That\'s how Stéphane Foucart, writing in Le Monde (online edition, March 26, 2009), characterizes Mikhail Gromov. His winning of the 2009 Abel Prize had just been announced.

“来自寒带的天才”——Stéphane Foucart在法国的《世界报》（2009年3月26日）上就是这样描写Mikhail Gromov的。Gromov获得2009年的Abel奖的消息当时刚刚宣布。

Misha Gromov（米沙.格罗莫夫）

Foucart interviewed some of Misha\'s peers for his profile of the renowned geometer. Jean-Pierre Bourguignon describes him as "a conceptualizer, someone who in just one article will string out a hundred theorems which the mathematical community will take ten or fifteen years to absorb." Marcel Berger attributes to Einstein the statement that one only gets to have one or two ideas in one\'s life, and goes on to say "Misha Gromov has had five or six." Foucart fills in some background by quoting from an interview Misha gave to the physicist Georges Ripka, published in "Vivre savant sous le communisme" by Editions Belin in 2002. "I had wanted to emigrate [from the Soviet Union] ever since I was 14." Bourguignon explains how he managed it, leaving the university in the early 1970s, cutting off all contact with the mathematical community and stopping all written mathematical work. The idea was to become obscure enough to be allowed, as a Jew, to emigrate to Israel. This happened in 1974, but Gromov changed route in Rome and came to Stony Brook instead. Bourguignon: "Those were extraordinary years. He was so to speak \'debriefed\' by the Long Island mathematicians, and was able to spill out all that he had kept in his head and had not been able to write down during his years of \'mathematical clandestinity.\' We were astounded."

In a companion article ("From Poincaré to Gromov, a French tradition") Foucart explains how the French educational system, and especially the écoles normales supérieures, funnel the best students towards universities and research. （在前面这篇文章的姊妹篇"从庞卡莱到 Gromov 看法国传统"中，Foucart 解释了法国的高等教育体系，特别是他们的高等师范学校体系，是怎样把最好的学生培养成大学和研究机构的主力军的） And Gromov himself gives an analysis of the difference between French and American mathematics (quoted from Ripka\'s book): "In America, many mathematicians quickly become limited because they are constrained by having to publish and to get grants. If they are not expert in a field, they don\'t get them. That makes them intellectually very narrow, both in what they know and in their attitude towards other fields. (...) In France things go much better because of the education inherited from Bourbaki, who developed an inter-mathematical curriculum. A French mathematician is much better educated in mathematics than an American one." （Gromov本人也就法国数学和美国数学之间的区别谈了自己的看法：“在美国，很多数学家由于不得不发文章来争取科研经费，他们很快就受制于此。如果他们不变成某一小领域的专家，他们既没法发文章也不能拿经费。这样的状况使得他们的知识面很窄，同时对其它领域也没有多少兴趣去了解。在法国，由于布尔巴基（主张数学各学科的融合）留下来的教育传统的影响，情况好很多。一个法国数学家比一个美国数学家受到的数学教育要好得多”）（Translated by T.P.）