It started with a simple message from Internet billionaire Yuri Milner: Let’s meet up. Before responding to that e-mail in April, Jacob Lurie, a Harvard University mathematics professor, decided to look up Milner and found that the venture capitalist, along with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, had started awarding a $3-million prize in mathematics this year. Lurie figured Milner wanted his advice on whom to pick. “I was surprised,” Lurie says, “when he offered me the prize.”
Image: U.C.L.A. mathematician Terence Tao, one of five winners of the inaugural $3-million Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics. Credit: Terence Tao
To read the original article: With Awards Like the Breakthrough Prize, Who Needs a Nobel? - Scientific American
