About two centuries ago the French Academy of Sciences initiated competitions aimed at solving actual scientific challenges with great cash awards for winners. In 1731 The Royal Society (London) created the first scientific award - the Copley Medal. Since that time the amount of different medals and awards for scientific achievements had exceeded couple of hundred, one of them became the symbol of the highest achievements - the Nobel Prize, which was founded in the late 19th century by a Swedish engineer and industrialist Alfred Nobel (1833-189б).
Unfortunately, not all the sciences are awarded with the Nobel Prize. Curiously enough, but mathematics, "the Queen of the Sciences" doesn’t belong to «Nobel», because of the founder’s will. So why are mathematicians one in the eye for outstanding patron, that he deprived them of his award? All the more so, in the draft last will Nobel also included mathematics to the list of «premiere» sciences, which deserved an award prize. Historians mention two versions here.
The first version (French American): an outstanding Swedish mathematician Mittag-Leffler in his young days was Nobel’s opponent in the competition for a charming lady’s favour, who eventually chose the mathematician. It is said, that when Nobel saw his ex-opponent’s surname in the list of nominees, he was so indignant, that he not only managed to scratch a hateful rival from a list, but also made sure that in future mathematics hadn’t even a trace remained in the list of sciences for his prize.
The second version (Swedish): during drawing up of Nobel’s will, Mittag-Leffler was an absolute leader of Swedish mathematics. Of course, Nobel knew about it and understood that by establishing the prize for mathematicians, he would help Mittag-Leffler to win it. And it is proved that Nobel felt an intrapersonal distaste for Mittag-Leffler for rather different reasons from those mentioned above.
This almost detective story left mathematics without international prize for a long time. The first, who not only noticed this unfairness, but also tried to repair an injustice, was John Charles Fields - professor of mathematics at different universities of the New World, and in 1923 – 1932 – the Head of the Organizing Committee of the International Congress of Mathematicians. He proposed to initiate an international prize for the most distinguished achievements in Mathematics. The proposal was finally approved in September 1932 at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Zurich. Unfortunately, he didn’t live a month to see this outstanding event. The major part of Fields’ bequest went to the International Mathematical Union to create a bonus fund.
Taking into consideration Field’s great services, concerning the prize’s creation, it was decided to name the highest mathematical award after him. Traditionally, the Fields Medal is awarded to young mathematicians every four years at the International Congress of Mathematicians. The prize consists of the Fields Medal and a cash award, which depends on the Fields Fund.
In 1982 a new international prize appeared. It was named after an outstanding Finnish mathematician, ex-president of the International Mathematical Union - R.H. Nevanlinna (1895 -1980) and was awarded to young scientists for outstanding achievements in development areas of mathematical aspects of information and computer science.
The Abel Prize creation became a significant event in the scientific life of our planet. In August, 2001 Jens Stoltenberg, Prime Minister of Norway, announced about the creation of the Abel Prize, a new international prize for mathematics. It was named after a brilliant Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel (1802-1829).
“Abel’s works are above my praise, because they are above my works” – these late words of recognition belong to “the Princeps mathematicorum”- Johann Gauss, and they just intensify the tragic fate of the scientist, who died at the age of 27. Although Abel lived a very short life, he made a lot and left a mark in history of mathematics. Abel’s works got a real recognition only after his death. When scientists puzzled out his discoveries, it became perfectly clear, that his works were the basis of the most important areas of mathematics. They produced the development of Galois theory, the theory of functions of a complex variable, the integral equation theory, the theory of power series, the interpolation of functions theory, the functional equation theory, the theory of numbers. Abel’s works became a starting point for researches of Jacobi, Weierstrass, Riemann, Poincaré and others. The Mathematics got rich in such notions as differential of the first kinds, Abelian differentials, integrals, equations, functions, groups, tests for convergence, varieties, summability methods and others. At the suggestion of Department of Mathematics (The University of Oslo), the Government of Norway decided to create an award similar to the Nobel Prize in order of Abel’s anniversary to be celebrated. The original fund of the Abel Prize would be 200 million Norwegian kroner (23 mln. USD). A monetary award would depend on the level of the fund. The first cash award would coincide with 816,000 USD. For the first time it would be presented on 3th of June in 2003.
It is important to note, that the idea of creating the international award, named after Abel, was firstly contributed by a Norwegian mathematician Sophus Lie in the late 19th century. In 1902, when the 100th anniversary of Niels Abel's birth was celebrated, King of Sweden and Norway, Oscar II, wanted to fulfill the idea, but a suggestion had yet to be a suggestion, because of dissolution of the union between these two countries in 1905. And only 100 years later mathematicians could celebrate their “big day”.
The Abel Prize will be controlled by the Norwegian Academy of Science. Having planned the creation of the prize, the Academy cooperated closely with the Swedish Academy of Sciences, which dealt with the Nobel Prize. In coordination with the International Mathematical Union, the Norwegian Academy of Science will settle a special committee, which will include 5 experts and 20-30 science advisors of the committee. Advisors will examine nominees` works and then commit them to the committee. The committee and advisors will be international and consist of Norwegians and people of other nationalities. The Executive Committee of the International Mathematical Union acclaimed the Abel Prize the most important project for the years of mathematics development in the whole world.