IMU Declines Renaming Fields Medal

August 30, 2010

The International Mathematical Union (IMU) has reportedly rejected an informal proposition from Indian mathematicians to increase the size of the prize money attached to mathematics highest honor—the Fields Medal—if it is renamed the Fields-Ramanujan Medal.

"We had hoped the addition of the name of Ramanujan, who’s associated with pure academics, would be acceptable,” said Madabusi Santanam Raghunathan (Tata Institute of Fundamental Research). Raghunathan indicated he would have sought the backing of the Indian government if the IMU had decided otherwise.

First given in 1936, the medal carries a cash prize of $15,000 (Canadian). The medal is named after Canadian mathematician John Charles Fields, who dictated the amount of the award in his will before his death in 1932. It is awarded to at most four mathematicians at the quadrennial International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM).

The Indian offer came after a "somewhat similar proposal" from a Canadian organization, said Raghunathan, who was also chairman of the executive organizing committee of ICM 2010, which was held in Hyderabad, India, from August 19-27, under the sponsorship of the IMU.

“I’m not at liberty to disclose the identity of the organization,” declared IMU President Laszlo Lovasz. “But there was a process of consultations within the IMU and among the Fields Medal winners, and it emerged that there should be no change in the name.”

Source: The Telegraph India (August 25, 2010)