2010 Fields Medal Awarded
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icm2010.in
Elon Lindenstrauss is being awarded the 2010 Fields Medal for his results on measure rigidity in ergodic theory, and their applications to number theory.
Fields Medal - Elon Lindenstrauss, Princeton University Lindenstrauss has made far-reaching advances in ergodic theory, the study of measure preserving transformations. His work on a conjecture of Furstenberg and Margulis concerning the measure rigidity of higher rank diagonal actions in homogeneous spaces has led to striking applications. Specifically, jointly with Einsiedler and Katok, he established the conjecture under a further hypothesis of positive entropy. It has impressive applications to the classical Littlewood Conjecture in the theory of diophantine approximation. Developing these as well other powerful ergodic theoretic and arithmetical ideas, Lindenstrauss resolved the arithmetic quantum unique ergodicity conjecture of Rudnick and Sarnak in the theory of modular forms. He and his collaborators have found many other unexpected applications of these ergodic theoretic techniques in problems in classical number theory. His work is exceptionally deep and its impact goes far beyond ergodic theory.
When I was a kid I wanted to get a PhD in math and physics and comp sci and etc etc etc. I was really disappointed when I got older and realized I would only have time for one. So I chose math because I wanted to study mathematical logic, differential equations, numerics and etc etc etc. Then I got to grad school and realized I would only have time for one. So I chose numerics because I wanted to study molecular dynamics, computational neuroscience, fluid dynamics, etc etc. Then I had to choose an advisor, and I realized I'd only get in an education in one sub discipline. So I chose fluid mechanics, because I wanted to study polymeric fluids, multiscale dynamics, fluid-structure interactions, etc etc. Then I finally started doing real research and realized I'd be lucky just to make a noticeable contribution to one of those.
There are exceptions, of course.
(I don't mean to sound pessimistic, just realistic. Research has been good to me, and I love doing it)
For example, I'm no researcher, but I tend to try and read a few good books about maths, and sometimes even actual mathematical books, just for the fun. Do you tend to do the same?
One of the reasons I chose applied math was because I thought it was the best centralized position in all of science. It would take me years to switch to another branch of math, but in applied math I can at least switch the focus of application, possibly in under a year or two.
Do you think that being proud of someone just because he's your compatriot is rational or irrational?
After all, you just share the same nationality by random chance, therefore isn't it the same as being proud that you were born on the same day of the week as Einstein or that your hair is the same colour as George Washington's?
If someone feels proud, he/she naturally just got a good moment in life. I guess your question was: Is it rational to identify yourself with an external entity in order to feel good/bad when something happens to this entity. The answer is: In many cases it is perfectly rational. E.g. when people start supporting an old soccer sclub that got a breakout success, old supporters refer to new ones as "gloryhunters".
By the way, I am a gloryhunter here as well. One of the four Fields medalists this year (Stas Smirnov) graduated from the same high school and college as I did.
To the extent that people make snap judgments about other people based on race or nationality, it would seem that you'd want people that share your ethnicity or nationality to do well. This likely has a minor increase in people's perception of you.
Likewise, you probably feel shame or unhappiness when the opposite happens. Just look at what being Muslim is like in the US now.
I somehow feel proud that I made a good choice of place to live for now, if that makes any sense.
PS: I noticed they are almost all "outsiders", foreigners that immigrated to Western countries, or locals outside the traditional elite of the Western countries. The point, which is a depressing one, is that mathematics and, more generally, pure science, is an "outsider" activity nowadays.
There is another reason though: it shows that your country/culture is a good one in terms of innovation or whatever. This directly reflects on the culture that your are a part of, both in the sense that you're affected by it, and also that you are part of shaping it. So in a way, a win for your culture is a win for you.
I've never understood the swellings of national pride that occur within a country when (for example) one of their citizens wins an Olympic medal; only a handful of people played any part in that achievement, to insinuate yourself amongst them by virtue of these random relationships is almost parasitic.
Likewise, though less on-topic, I have no time for patriotism either. George Bernard Shaw put it best: "Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all others because you were born in it."
In the widest sense, a nation is like a company. You could argue all it's members contribute to making it the place it is. If it brings forth a field medal winner, it might be a result of the favourable conditions you helped creating.
http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/08/19/lindenstrauss-ngo-s...