Abel Prize in mathematics awarded to German for first time

Bonn-based mathematician Gerd Faltings is to be awarded the Abel Prize, often called the Nobel Prize of mathematics, marking the first time a German has won the prestigious award.

The Norwegian Academy of Sciences and the University of Bonn on Thursday announced the award, which will be handed out on May 26 in Oslo in the presence of Norway's King Harald V.

The prize ranks among the most prestigious mathematics awards — a true Nobel Prize for mathematics does not exist. It was established by the Norwegian government on the occasion of the 200th birthday of Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel (1802–1829).

The prize comes with 7.5 million Norwegian kroner ($782,325). In its citation, the prize committee honoured Faltings as a "towering figure in arithmetic geometry." His ideas and results have shaped the field and led to the resolution of long-standing open conjectures, the committee said.

Faltings was already the first German to receive the Fields Medal in 1986, a similarly important award in the field of mathematics.

He was born in Gelsenkirchen in 1954 and as a student participated twice in the Federal Mathematics Competition of the Donors' Association. After his high school graduation exams, he studied mathematics and physics in Münster, was a visiting scholar at Harvard University in 1978/79, and earned his PhD in 1981. Professorships in Wuppertal and Princeton University followed.

Faltings returned to Germany in 1994 and, until his retirement in 2023, served as director at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in Bonn and as professor at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at the University of Bonn.