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Terence Tao |
Professor wins one of math’s highest honors
BY STUART WOLPERT
UCLA Today
Terence Tao became UCLA’s first mathematician to receive the prestigious Fields Medal, often described as the “Nobel Prize in Mathematics.”
Tao, 31, was presented the prize Aug. 22 at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Madrid where the world’s preeminent mathematicians have gathered. The medal, which is awarded every fourth year by the International Mathematical Union, was also given to Andrei Okounkov, professor of mathematics at Princeton University; Grigori Perelman, formerly a Miller Fellow at UC Berkeley; and Wendelin Werner, professor of mathematics at the University of Paris-Sud in Orsay.
Tao won one of math’s highest honors “for his contributions to partial differential equations, combinatorics, harmonic analysis and additive number theory,” according to the International Mathematical Union. “Terence Tao is a supreme problem-solver whose spectacular work has had an impact across several mathematical areas. He combines sheer technical power, an other-worldly ingenuity for hitting upon new ideas, and a startlingly natural point of view that leaves other mathematicians wondering, ‘Why didn't anyone see that before?’ His interests range over a wide swath of mathematics, including harmonic analysis, nonlinear partial differential equations, and combinatorics.”
When asked about his win, Tao said with characteristic modesty, "I would be very happy to see other mathematicians take my work and build upon it, replacing it with something simpler and better,” according to an Australian newspaper. The UCLA mathematician said that while it was flattering to be recognized, he hopes his mathematics will ultimately receive more recognition than he will.
"It's still quite stunning and I'm not really absorbing it yet," Tao said in an e-mail to UCLA Today. "Right
now I am receiving e-mails from friends I have not heard from for
years, and I guess that is really
driving things home [for me], more than the ceremonies here."
His capture of the Fields Medal surprised few at UCLA.
“Terry is like Mozart; mathematics just flows out of him, except without Mozart’s personality problems,” said John Garnett, professor and former chair of the mathematics department. “Everyone likes him. Mathematicians with Terry's talent appear only once in a generation. He’s probably the best mathematician in the world right now. Terry can unravel an enormously complicated mathematical problem and reduce it to something very simple.”
Tony Chan, dean of physical sciences and professor of mathematics, said Tao’s reputation is such that Chan is known in the math world as “the dean of the university where Terry Tao works.”
“People all over the world say, ‘UCLA’s so lucky to have Terry Tao.’ He has solved important problems in several areas of mathematics that have stumped others for a long time,” Chan said. “The way he crosses areas would be like the best heart surgeon also being exceptional in brain surgery. What is also amazing is that Terry is still so young.”
A math prodigy from Adelaide, Australia, Tao started learning calculus when he was 7 when he entered high school. By 9, he had progressed to doing university-level calculus; by 11, he was already burnishing his reputation at international math competitions. Tao was 20 when he earned his Ph.D. from Princeton University and joined UCLA’s faculty. By 24, he had become a full professor.
“The best students in the world in number theory all want to study with Terry,” Chan said. Graduate students have come to UCLA from as far as Romania and China. “He’s a magnet attracting the best students the same way John Wooden attracted outstanding basketball players.”
One area in which Tao specializes is harmonic analysis, an advanced form of calculus that uses equations from physics. Some of his work involves “geometrical constructions that almost no one understands,” Garnett said. In another area of math, Tao’s work with Ben Green of the University of Bristol, England — proving that prime numbers contain infinitely many progressions of all finite lengths — was lauded by Discover magazine as one of the 100 most important scientific discoveries in 2004. Tao is also considered the world’s expert on the “Kakeya conjecture,” a perplexing set of five problems in harmonic analysis.
“I don’t have any magical ability,” Tao said with characteristic modesty. “I look at a problem, and it looks something like one I’ve done before. I think maybe the idea that worked before will work here.” If it doesn’t, he continues to play with it, perhaps trying a small trick to make it work. “After awhile, I figure out what’s going on.”
Will Tao, who’s married and has one son, become an even better mathematician in another decade or so?
“Experience helps a lot,” he said. “I may get a little slower, but I’ll have access to a larger database of tricks; I’ll know better what will work and what won’t. I’ll get déjà vu more often, seeing a problem that reminds me of something.”
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