The Mathematician Who Refused a Million Dollars

The Mathematician Who Refused a Million Dollars

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Episode description

The Mathematician Who Refused a Million Dollars

On 22 August 2006, Russian mathematician Grigori Perelman was awarded the Fields Medal for proving the Poincaré conjecture, one of mathematics’ most intractable problems. He declined to attend the ceremony, later refused the accompanying million-dollar Clay Millennium Prize, and withdrew from public life. His proof, using Ricci flow with surgery, solved a century-old question about the topology of three-dimensional spaces. Perelman’s rejection of recognition stemmed from disillusionment with mathematical community ethics and disputes over attribution. The episode also covers two other events from 22 August: the audacious 2004 daylight theft of Edvard Munch’s The Scream from Oslo’s Munch Museum, recovered two years later after a dramatic heist, and the 2007 baseball game in which the Texas Rangers defeated the Baltimore Orioles 30-3, the highest score in modern Major League Baseball history. Three stories about human achievement, refusal, and spectacular excess.

Chapters

  • Introduction What would you do if you won the most prestigious prize in your field and a million dollars? Clara introduces the story of a man who solved one of mathematics’ hardest problems and turned down every award offered to him.
  • The Man Who Said No to Mathematics’ Highest Honour Henri Poincaré posed his conjecture about three-dimensional topology in 1904. Grigori Perelman proved it in 2002-2003 using Ricci flow with surgery. On 22 August 2006, he was awarded the Fields Medal but refused to attend. He later declined the million-dollar Clay Millennium Prize, citing concerns about the mathematical community’s ethical standards and withdrew from public life.
  • The Scream Goes Missing On 22 August 2004, two masked gunmen walked into Oslo’s Munch Museum in broad daylight and stole The Scream and Madonna in under two minutes. The theft coincided with an armed robbery in which a police officer was killed. Both paintings were recovered two years later in August 2006, though damaged.
  • Thirty to Three On 22 August 2007, the Texas Rangers defeated the Baltimore Orioles 30-3, the most runs ever scored by a single team in a modern Major League Baseball game. The Rangers had 29 hits across nearly every inning in a statistically absurd display of sporting dominance.
  • Outro Three stories from 22 August circling the same truth: humans do surprising things with achievements, prizes, and records. History continues to find new ways to be ridiculous.

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