Wolf Prize in Mathematics

The Wolf Prize in Mathematics is awarded almost annually[a] by the Wolf Foundation in Israel. It is one of the six Wolf Prizes established by the Foundation and awarded since 1978; the others are in Agriculture, Chemistry, Medicine, Physics and Arts. According to a reputation survey conducted in 2013 and 2014, the Wolf Prize in Mathematics is the third most prestigious international academic award in mathematics, after the Abel Prize and the Fields Medal.[1][2] Until the establishment of the Abel Prize, it was probably the closest equivalent of a "Nobel Prize in Mathematics", since the Fields Medal is awarded every four years only to mathematicians under the age of 40. The Wolf Prize includes a monetary award of $100,000.[1]

Laureates

YearNameNationalityCitation
1978Israel Gelfand  Soviet Unionfor his work in functional analysis, group representation, and for his seminal contributions to many areas of mathematics and its applications.
Carl L. Siegel  Germanyfor his contributions to the theory of numbers, theory of several complex variables, and celestial mechanics.
1979Jean Leray  Francefor pioneering work on the development and application of topological methods to the study of differential equations.
André Weil  Francefor his inspired introduction of algebraic-geometric methods to the theory of numbers.
1980Henri Cartan  Francefor pioneering work in algebraic topology, complex variables, homological algebra and inspired leadership of a generation of mathematicians.
Andrey Kolmogorov  Soviet Unionfor deep and original discoveries in Fourier analysis, probability theory, ergodic theory and dynamical systems.
1981Lars Ahlfors  Finlandfor seminal discoveries and the creation of powerful new methods in geometric function theory.
Oscar Zariski  United Statescreator of the modern approach to algebraic geometry, by its fusion with commutative algebra.
1982Hassler Whitney  United Statesfor his fundamental work in algebraic topology, differential geometry and differential topology.
Mark Krein  Soviet Unionfor his fundamental contributions to functional analysis and its applications.
1983/84Shiing-Shen Chern  China
 United States
for outstanding contributions to global differential geometry, which have profoundly influenced all mathematics.
Paul Erdős  Hungaryfor his numerous contributions to number theory, combinatorics, probability, set theory and mathematical analysis, and for personally stimulating mathematicians the world over.
1984/85Kunihiko Kodaira  Japanfor his outstanding contributions to the study of complex manifolds and algebraic varieties.
Hans Lewy  United Statesfor initiating many, now classic and essential, developments in partial differential equations.
1986Samuel Eilenberg  Poland
 United States
for his fundamental work in algebraic topology and homological algebra.
Atle Selberg  Norwayfor his profound and original work on number theory and on discrete groups and automorphic forms.
1987Kiyoshi Itō  Japanfor his fundamental contributions to pure and applied probability theory, especially the creation of the stochastic differential and integral calculus.
Peter Lax  Hungary
 United States
for his outstanding contributions to many areas of analysis and applied mathematics.
1988Friedrich Hirzebruch  Germanyfor outstanding work combining topology, algebraic geometry and differential geometry, and algebraic number theory; and for his stimulation of mathematical cooperation and research.
Lars Hörmander  Swedenfor fundamental work in modern analysis, in particular, the application of pseudo-differential operators and Fourier integral operators to linear partial differential equations.
1989Alberto Calderón  Argentinafor his groundbreaking work on singular integral operators and their application to important problems in partial differential equations.
John Milnor  United Statesfor ingenious and highly original discoveries in geometry, which have opened important new vistas in topology from the algebraic, combinatorial, and differentiable viewpoint.
1990Ennio De Giorgi  Italyfor his innovating ideas and fundamental achievements in partial differential equations and calculus of variations.
Ilya Piatetski-Shapiro  Soviet Union
 Israel
for his fundamental contributions in the fields of homogeneous complex domains, discrete groups, representation theory and automorphic forms.
1991No award
1992Lennart Carleson  Swedenfor his fundamental contributions to Fourier analysis, complex analysis, quasi-conformal mappings and dynamical systems.
John G. Thompson  United Statesfor his profound contributions to all aspects of finite group theory and connections with other branches of mathematics.
1993Mikhail Gromov  Russia
 France
for his revolutionary contributions to global Riemannian and symplectic geometry, algebraic topology, geometric group theory and the theory of partial differential equations;
Jacques Tits  Belgium
 France
for his pioneering and fundamental contributions to the theory of the structure of algebraic and other classes of groups and in particular for the theory of buildings.
1994/95Jürgen Moser  Switzerland
 United States
for his fundamental work on stability in Hamiltonian mechanics and his profound and influential contributions to nonlinear differential equations.
1995/96Robert Langlands  Canadafor his path-blazing work and extraordinary insight in the fields of number theory, automorphic forms and group representation.
Andrew Wiles  United Kingdomfor spectacular contributions to number theory and related fields, major advances on fundamental conjectures, and for settling Fermat's Last Theorem.
1996/97Joseph B. Keller  United Statesfor his profound and innovative contributions, in particular to electromagnetic, optical, and acoustic wave propagation and to fluid, solid, quantum and statistical mechanics.
Yakov G. Sinai  Russia
 United States
for his fundamental contributions to mathematically rigorous methods in statistical mechanics and the ergodic theory of dynamical systems and their applications in physics.
1998No award
1999László Lovász  Hungary
 United States
for his outstanding contributions to combinatorics, theoretical computer science and combinatorial optimization.
Elias M. Stein  United Statesfor his contributions to classical and Euclidean Fourier analysis and for his exceptional impact on a new generation of analysts through his eloquent teaching and writing.
2000Raoul Bott  Hungary
 United States
for his deep discoveries in topology and differential geometry and their applications to Lie groups, differential operators and mathematical physics.
Jean-Pierre Serre  Francefor his many fundamental contributions to topology, algebraic geometry, algebra, and number theory and for his inspirational lectures and writing.
2001Vladimir Arnold  Russiafor his deep and influential work in a multitude of areas of mathematics, including dynamical systems, differential equations, and singularity theory.
Saharon Shelah  Israelfor his many fundamental contributions to mathematical logic and set theory, and their applications within other parts of mathematics.
2002/03Mikio Sato  Japanfor his creation of algebraic analysis, including hyperfunction theory and microfunction theory, holonomic quantum field theory, and a unified theory of soliton equations.
John Tate  United Statesfor his creation of fundamental concepts in algebraic number theory.
2004No award
2005Gregory Margulis  Russia
 United States
for his monumental contributions to algebra, in particular to the theory of lattices in semi-simple Lie groups, and striking applications of this to ergodic theory, representation theory, number theory, combinatorics, and measure theory.
Sergei Novikov  Russiafor his fundamental and pioneering contributions to algebraic and differential topology, and to mathematical physics, notably the introduction of algebraic-geometric methods.
2006/07Stephen Smale  United Statesfor his groundbreaking contributions that have played a fundamental role in shaping differential topology, dynamical systems, mathematical economics, and other subjects in mathematics.
Hillel Furstenberg  United States
 Israel
for his profound contributions to ergodic theory, probability, topological dynamics, analysis on symmetric spaces and homogeneous flows.
2008Pierre Deligne  Belgiumfor his work on mixed Hodge theory; the Weil conjectures; the Riemann-Hilbert correspondence; and for his contributions to arithmetic.
Phillip A. Griffiths  United Statesfor his work on variations of Hodge structures; the theory of periods of abelian integrals; and for his contributions to complex differential geometry.
David B. Mumford  United Statesfor his work on algebraic surfaces; on geometric invariant theory; and for laying the foundations of the modern algebraic theory of moduli of curves and theta functions.
2009No award
2010Shing-Tung Yau  United Statesfor his work in geometric analysis that has had a profound and dramatic impact on many areas of geometry and physics.
Dennis P. Sullivan  United Statesfor his innovative contributions to algebraic topology and conformal dynamics.
2011No award
2012Michael Aschbacher  United Statesfor his work on the theory of finite groups.
Luis Caffarelli  Argentinafor his work on partial differential equations.
2013George D. Mostow  United Statesfor his fundamental and pioneering contribution to geometry and Lie group theory.
Michael Artin  United Statesfor his fundamental contributions to algebraic geometry, both in commutative and noncommutative.
2014Peter Sarnak  South Africa
 United States
for his deep contributions in analysis, number theory, geometry, and combinatorics.
2015James G. Arthur  Canadafor his monumental work on the trace formula and his fundamental contributions to the theory of automorphic representations of reductive groups.
2016No award
2017Richard Schoen  United Statesfor his contributions to geometric analysis and the understanding of the interconnectedness of partial differential equations and differential geometry.
Charles Fefferman  United Statesfor his contributions in a number of mathematical areas including complex multivariate analysis, partial differential equations and sub-elliptical problems.
2018Alexander Beilinson  Russia
 United States
for their work that has made significant progress at the interface of geometry and mathematical physics.
Vladimir Drinfeld  Ukraine
 United States
2019Jean-Francois Le Gall  Francefor his several deep and elegant contributions to the theory of stochastic processes.
Gregory Lawler  United Statesfor his comprehensive and pioneering research on erased loops and random walks.[3]
2020Simon K. Donaldson  United Kingdomfor their contributions to differential geometry and topology.[4]
Yakov Eliashberg  United States
2021No award
2022George Lusztig  Romania
 United States
for his groundbreaking contributions to representation theory and related areas.[5]
2023Ingrid Daubechies  Belgium
 United States
for her work in wavelet theory and applied harmonic analysis.[6]

Laureates per country

Below is a chart of all laureates per country (updated to 2023 laureates). Some laureates are counted more than once if they have multiple citizenships.

CountryNumber of laureates
 United States34
 Soviet Union /  Russia10
 France7
 Hungary4
 Israel3
 Japan3
 Belgium3
 Germany2
 United Kingdom2
 Canada2
 Argentina2
 Sweden2
 Ukraine2
 South Africa1
 Poland1
 Italy1
 China1
 Norway1
 Finland1
 Romania1

Notes

See also

References

External links