Henri Poincaré: Collect the million dollars, dummy.

A brief New Scientist article details how reclusive Russian math genius Grigori Perelman, who solved Poincaré’s conjecture, may turn down the million dollar prize attached to that feat. The conjecture, posed by French mathematician Henri Poincaré in 1904, is way over the layman’s head, but it involves the properties of spheres in three dimensions. The skittish Perelman may not accept the Millennium Prize from the Clay Mathematics Institute. An excerpt:

“Perelman published a proof in 2002, but since became disillusioned with mathematics and withdrew from the mathematical community. In 2006 he refused to accept a Fields medal for his work, an award often described as the Nobel prize of mathematics.

The president of CMI, James Carlson, is waiting to see if Perelman will do the same for the Millennium prize. ‘It may be a while before he makes his decision,’ he says. The Poincaré conjecture is the only one of the seven Millennium problems that has been solved to date, and the fate of the prize money is uncertain if Perelman rejects.”