'Sullivan has repeatedly changed the landscape of topology by introducing new concepts, proving landmark theorems, answering old conjectures and formulating new problems that have driven the field forwards,' says the citation for the 2022 Abel Prize, which was announced by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, based in Oslo, on 23 March. Throughout his career, Sullivan has moved from one area of mathematics to another and solved problems using a wide variety of tools, 'like a true virtuoso', the citation added. The prize is worth 7.5 million Norwegian Kroner (US$854,000). Since it was first awarded in 2003, the Abel Prize has come to represent a lifetime achievement award, says Hans Munthe-Kaas, the prize committee chair and a mathematician at the University of Bergen, Norway. The past 24 Abel laureates are all famous mathematicians; many did their most renowned work in the mid-to-late twentieth century. 'It's nice to be included in such an illustrious list,' says Sullivan,...
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