The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters has awarded the Abel Prize for 2010 to Springer author John Tate of the University of Texas at Austin. The mathematician has been honored "for his vast and lasting impact on the theory of numbers." The prize amount is approximately EUR 730,000 and will be presented to Tate by His Majesty King Harald at an award ceremony in Oslo, Norway, on 25 May 2010.
John Tate is a prime architect of the development of the theory of numbers. His scientific accomplishments span six decades. A wealth of essential mathematical ideas and constructions were initiated by Tate and later named after him, such as the Tate module, Tate curve, and Tate cycle to mention just a few.
At Springer John Tate is the author of the video The Millennium Prize Problems, the book Les Conjectures de Stark sur les Fonctions L d'Artin en s=0, and co-author of Rational Points on Elliptic Curves, which was also translated into a successful Japanese version. He has written many book chapters in volumes in the Springer series Lecture Notes in Mathematics and has contributed numerous articles to journals in Springer's mathematics portfolio such as Inventiones Mathematicae.
John Tate was born in 1925 in Minneapolis, USA. He received his Bachelor of Arts from Harvard College in 1946 and his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1950. Starting in 1954, Tate was a professor at Harvard University and taught there for thirty-six years. In 1990 he accepted his last academic position as professor and Sid W. Richardson Chair in Mathematics at the University of Texas at Austin.
All previous Abel Prize laureates are Springer editors or authors. Springer has recently published the book The Abel Prize 2003-2007: The First Five Years that contains presentations of the first five years' winners, J.-P. Serre (2003), Sir M. Atiyah and I. Singer (2004), P. Lax (2005), L. Carleson (2006) and S.R.S. Varadhan (2007). Each laureate provides an autobiography or an interview, a CV, and a complete bibliography. This is complemented by a scholarly description of their work written by leading experts in the field, and a brief history of the Abel Prize. Interviews with the laureates are also included on a DVD. Editors are Helge Holden and Ragni Piene.
The Abel Prize, awarded annually by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, was founded in 2003. It recognizes contributions of extraordinary depth and influence to the mathematical sciences. The award is in memory of the Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel, who died at the young age of 27. Springer has published a biography of this great mathematical genius in English, German, French and Japanese versions.