John Charles Fields was born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada on May 14, 1863. Fields received his B.A. in Mathematics from the University of Toronto in 1884 and his Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins University in 1887. He was later appointed Professor of Mathematics at Allegheny College from 1889 to 1892. After a period of study in Europe, during which he made associations with such noted mathematicians as Fuchs, Frobenius, Hensel, Schawrtz, and Planck, Fields was appointed special lecturer at the University of Toronto in 1902. He was later appointed as research professor in 1923 and remained at the university until the time of his death on August 9, 1932.
During his mathematical career, John Charles Fields was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (1907) and the Royal Society of London (1913). In addition, he served as the president of the 1924 International Congress of Mathematicians at Toronto. Fields' mathematical interests were in algebraic functions. Fields was probably the most significant research mathematician ever at the University of Toronto. The Thomas Fisher Rare Books Collection currently hold his papers.
In his will, Fields proposed the establishment of two gold medals which were to be awarded in acknowledgement of outstanding achievement in mathematics. He proposed that the awards be open to the entire world. Funding for the medals would come from the remains of a resource pool that financed the International Congress of Mathematicians at Toronto in 1924. The Minister of Finance of Canada, in conjunction with the Canadian government, was to secure the permanency of this trust through investment and other financial endeavor. The winners of the medals were to be determined by a subcommittee of mathematicians in a manner that honored the present achievements of the mathematicians in particular fields as well as encouraged both recipients and other mathematicians in the development of their respective fields of mathematics. There were several other suggestions in Fields' proposal made to the International Congress. The Congress adopted Fields' proposal in 1932 and the first two Fields Medals were awarded at the next congress which was held in Oslo in 1936.
"Fields Medal" is the unoffical name for the 'International Medal for Outstanding Discoveries in Mathematics.' The Fields Medal is the highest scientific award for mathematicians and is often referred to as the 'Nobel Prize in Mathematics' since the Swedish Academy of Sciences can only honor mathematicians indirectly through the natural or social sciences. Four medals (two prior to 1966) are presented every four years to mathematicians under the age of 40 (to ensure that not only past work is rewarded). A prize of 15,000 Canadian dollars accompanies the award. The Executive Committee of the International Mathematical Union appoints a subcommittee of eight mathematicians to award the medal. The medal is composed of gold and displays the head of Archimedes (287 - 212 B.C.) together with a quotation attributed to him. "Transire suum pectus mundoque potiri," (Rise above oneself and grasp the world). The reverse side bears the inscription "Congregati ex toto orbe mathematici ob scripta insignia tribuere," or "The mathematicians assembled here from all over the world pay tribute for outstanding work."
Fields Medals in 1998 were awarded to Richard E. Borcherds, Maxim Kontsevich, William Tomothy Gowers and Curtis T. McMullen for their work in algebra/geometry, pure mathematics/theoretical physics, functional analysis and geometry/chaos theory, respectively. A list of previous recipients of the Fields Medal is available at <http://www.fields.toronto.edu/medal.html>.
Author: Clarence L. Terry
References:
<http://www.math.toronto.edu/fields.html>
<http://daisy.uwaterloo.ca/~alopez-o/math-faq/node47.html>
<http://www.tu-berlin.de/presse/pi/1998/pi1823.html>
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