The Abel Prize 2007

Professor Varadhan was awarded the prize “for his fundamental contributions to probability theory and in particular for creating a unified theory of large deviation”. Kristian Seip, the chairman of the Abel Committee, read the committee’s grounds for awarding the prize.

His Majesty The King presented the prize.

The music during the ceremony was performed by the Oslo String Quartet, which played George Gershwin’s Summertime (with Isa Katharina Gericke) and Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story.

The Abel Prize

The Abel Prize is an international prize for outstanding scientific work in the field of mathematics. The prize seeks to contribute towards raising the status of mathematics in society and promoting greater interest in mathematics among children and young people in mathematics.

The Niels Henrik Abel Memorial Fund was established 2002 and the prize was awarded for the fist time in 2003.

The prize commemorates the Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel, who during his short life developed several groundbreaking theories that were to become normative for the development of modern mathematics. Abel died of tuberculosis in 1829, just a few months shy of his 27th birthday.

Banquet at Akershus Castle

In the evening, The King and Queen attended the government banquet honouring the Abel Laureate at Akershus Castle. Both Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and Professor László Lovász, President of the International Mathematical Union, spoke during the banquet, and entertainment was provided by the baroque orchestra Barokkanerne.