This year’s Abel Prize go to Israeli and U.S. professors

This year’s Abel Prize, the mathematics equivalent of of a Nobel, has been awarded to Hillel Furstenberg, a professor emeritus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Grigory Margulis of Yale University, the Abel Committee announced on Wednesday.

These two professors have been honored for their contribution to solving numerous problems with their probability theory called “random walking,” which ushered in a new era in telecommunications and computer science, according to the award committee. After teaching at Yeshiva University and Princeton University, Professor Furstenberg started teaching at Hebrew University in 1965 and became a professor emeritus in 2003 when he retired.

Professor Margulis, born in Moscow, Russia in 1946, tool up the professorship at Yale University in 1991 right after the collapse of the Soviet Union.


shinjsh@donga.com