John F. Nash and Louis Nirenberg win 'maths Nobel' for 2015

Oslo: Abel Prize for 2015 has been conferred to two US mathematician John F. Nash Jr. and Canada-born American national Louis Nirenberg for their contributions to mathematical sciences.

Abel Prize for 2015, considered as the maths Nobel, has been granted to them  "for striking and seminal contributions to the theory of nonlinear partial differential equations and its applications to geometric analysis," according to reports. 

The two scientists will receive the financial award of six million Norwegian kroners (about $765,000) from Norway's King Harald during a formal ceremony in Oslo on May 19.

Nash (86) spent his career at Princeton University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology while Nirenberg (90)  worked at New York University's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, the press release said, adding that even though they did not formally collaborate on any papers, they influenced each other greatly during the 1950s and the results of their work are felt more strongly today than ever before.

"Their breakthroughs have developed into versatile and robust techniques that have become essential tools for the study of nonlinear partial differential equations. Their impact can be felt in all branches of the theory," the Abel committee said in a citation.

Outside mathematics, Nash is best known for a paper he wrote about game theory, the mathematics of decision-making, which ultimately won him the 1994 Nobel Prize for economics and features strongly in the 2001 film about him, “A Beautiful Mind”.

Since 2003, The Abel prize is being awarded annually in memory of the Norwegian mathematics genius Niels Henrik Abel.

(With Agency inputs)