Fulbright, the Fields Medal, and the Abel Prize

The field of mathematics has been transformed through international training and collaborations. Fulbright alumni have been recipients of the most prestigious mathematics awards, including the “Nobel of Mathematics,” the Norwegian Academy of Science and Mathematics’ Abel Award. They have also earned the International Congress of the International Mathematical Union’s Fields Medal, established in 1936 to honor a small group of exceptional early career mathematicians every four years.  In total, 8 Fulbright mathematicians have won one or both of these awards for their innovative and important work.   

Fulbright Alumni John Willard Milnor of the United States, Jean-Pierre Serre of France, and Michael Atiyah of Great Britain have been celebrated as recipients of both the Abel Award and the Fields Medal. Dr. Milnor is a professor at the State University of New York, Stony Brook known for his work in differential topology, exotic spheres, algebraic K-theory and low-dimensional holomorphic dynamical systems.  

The most recent Fulbright alumnus to receive the Fields Medal is Dr. Terence Tao, who earned his PhD at Princeton University with the support of Fulbright. Colleagues compare Tao to Mozart for his mastery and prominence in theorems related to prime numbers, harmonic analysis, geometric, arithmetic, and algebraic combinatorics, analytic number theory, and compressed sensing. He has been a professor of mathematics at University of California, Los Angeles since 1999. 

Michael Atiyah

1959 Fulbright Visiting Scholar from the United Kingdom

1996 Fields Medal, 2004 Abel Prize

Terrence Tao

1992 Fulbright Foreign Student from Australia

2006 Fields Medal

“I very much embrace the concept of international collaboration and exchanges.”

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Heisuke Hironaka

1957 and 1959 Fulbright Foreign Student from Japan

1970 Fields Medal

John Milnor

1960 Fulbright U.S. Scholar to Mexico, 1960 Fulbright U.S. Scholar to Japan

1962 Fields Medal, 2011 Abel Prize