Perelman Snubs Academy
Published: October 5, 2011 (Issue # 1677)
MOSCOW — Reclusive math genius Grigory Perelman has refused to join the ranks of the Russian Academy of Sciences by not replying to a membership invitation, Interfax reported Monday.
“He hasn’t responded to our telegrams or phone calls. And he has not made any attempt to communicate with us either,” said an official with the St. Petersburg-based Steklov Institute of Mathematics, which proposed Perelman’s candidacy.
Perelman, 44, worked for the institute in the mid-1980s before traveling to the United States for postdoctoral research. In 2002, he proved the Poincare conjecture, and the Clay Mathematics Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, recognized this with a $1 million prize in 2006. But Perelman refused to collect it.
The institute official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Interfax that the list of candidates to the academy had to be submitted by Tuesday.