Grigori Perelman

Grigori Perelman
Grigori Perelman in 1993
Born	Grigori Yakovlevich Perelman (1966-06-13) 13 June 1966 (age 50) Leningrad, Soviet Union
Residence	Saint Petersburg, Russia
Citizenship	Russia
Fields	Mathematics
Alma mater	Leningrad State University
Thesis	Saddle Surfaces in Euclidean Spaces (1990)
Doctoral advisor	Aleksandr Aleksandrov Yuri Burago
Known for	Riemannian geometry Geometric topology Proof of the Soul conjecture Proof of the Poincaré conjecture
Notable awards	Saint Petersburg Mathematical Society Prize (1991) EMS Prize (1996), declined Fields Medal (2006), declined Millennium Prize (2010), declined

Grigori Yakovlevich Perelman (Russian: Григо́рий Я́ковлевич Перельма́н; IPA: [ɡrʲɪˈɡorʲɪj ˈjakəvlʲɪvʲɪtɕ pʲɪrʲɪlʲˈman] /pɛrᵻlˈmɑːn/ perr-il-MAHN; born 13 June 1966) is a Russian mathematician. He was the winner of the all-Russian mathematical olympiad. He made a landmark contribution to Riemannian geometry and geometric topology.

In 1994, Perelman proved the soul conjecture. In 2003, he proved (confirmed in 2006) Thurston's geometrization conjecture. This consequently solved in the affirmative the Poincaré conjecture.

In August 2006, Perelman was offered to be awarded the Fields Medal for "his contributions to geometry and his revolutionary insights into the analytical and geometric structure of the Ricci flow", but he declined to accept the award, stating: "I'm not interested in money or fame; I don't want to be on display like an animal in a zoo." On 22 December 2006, the scientific journal Science recognized Perelman's proof of the Poincaré conjecture as the scientific "Breakthrough of the Year", the first such recognition in the area of mathematics.