Poincare Conjecture Proven – Russian Genius Rejects Prize

In March 2010, the Clay Mathematics Institute of Cambridge, Massachusetts awarded Russian genius Grigori Perelman, 43, a $1 million prize for proving the Poincare conjecture, one of seven problems on the institute’s Millennium Prize list.

However, Perelman did not appear at a ceremony in Paris to collect the prize and decided to reject a $1 million cash prize from a U.S. institute.

Perelman blamed the “unjust” decisions of the “organized mathematician community” for his decision, saying American mathematician Richard Hamilton, ignored by the institute, had contributed to proving the theorem no less than Perelman himself.

Perelman said he notified the institute last week. The institute said in a statement that it would decide what to do with the money this fall.