The Abel Prize...with Math!

Defying nasty stereotypes that math is a sport for the young, the Abel Prize was again handed to a wizened old coot, this time to a geometer named Mikhail Gromov. The Abel Prize is one of the highest honors one can recieve in mathematics, and it comes with a near-million dollar purse, and a ceremony involving the Norwegian royalty.

Sounds a bit like another Scandinavian prize, eh?

The prize is named after one of my favorite mathematicians of old, Niels Henrik Abel, who died at the age of 31 some say because of anguish when his own country, Norway, would not offer him a job as a professor. Others say it was tuberculosis. Abel is now remembered as the most famous Norwegian mathematician ever, though Sophus Lie is hot on his trail.

The prize is quite young. It's first laureate was honored in 2003. The prize was a much overdue answer to the agist Fields Medal which one can only earn before one turns 40 (and which while catapulting one to fame, only awards about $15,000 per genius).