Årets Abelpris i et samfunnsperspektiv

In connection with the awarding of the Abel Prize and on other occasions where mathematical research will be devoted a certain amount of attention from the society-at-large, the question arises as to what this research can be used for. The implied question here is: what use can you and I have of the discoveries that people like Carleson have made. At last year's awarding of the Abel Prize to Peter D. Lax, it was easy to give a popular answer to that question; his work has formed a theoretical basis for the oil production on the Norwegian continental shelf. Stated bluntly, Lax had financed his own Abel Prize and then some, and that was an answer the society-at-large was content with. Here we had someone from this somewhat nerdy world of mathematicians who had done something that was practically useful and hence well worth a prize!

This year's prize winner is not in the same category as Peter D. Lax. Lennart Carleson is a highly theoretical mathematician, though not to be sure of the most abstract sort, but his work concerns issues of primarily theoretical interest. The main result of “convergence almost everywhere for Fourier series of quadratic integrable functions” has little practical utility for some of us in our busy everyday lives. The same can be said about “the existence of a strange attractor for the Hénon map”. The words alone are enough to frighten away even the most determined listener. However, both of these topics also have a more practical side than the one with which Carleson has been occupied. The first topic comes under Fourier analysis, a 200-year-old mathematical tool, which is the be-all and end-all of all engineering. Without Fourier analysis, we would have no cars, TV, tall buildings or vaccines. Indeed, our everyday lives might very well show some resemblance to that of our ancestors in Niels Henrik Abel's time.

The second topic is called dynamic systems. Dynamic systems and modern weather forecasting go hand in glove. Without the theory of dynamic systems, we would be back to traditional weather signs, low-flying swallows and “Red sky at morning; sailors take warning”. That's probably good enough for most purposes, but limited meteorological knowledge has resulted in many a grieving fisherman's widow. To put it somewhat provocatively, we can offer the following historical summary: Fourier developed Fourier analysis 200 years ago. This mathematical milestone has been crucial to our technological development. Nearly 160 years later, Carleson proved that Fourier was right; the theoretical foundation on which he intuitively based his theory holds water. The engineers who have played with various designs for many generations have finally been given their theoretical seal of approval. So, with the awarding of the Abel Prize for 2006 to “the problem solver” of age-old theoretical problems, Lennart Carleson from our sister country, we need once again to man the barricades in defence of theoretical mathematics, for the use of society's revenue on people who sit and ponder tough old problems that do not have an ounce of practical utility.

That defence consists of only one argument, namely: time and again, history has shown that applied and theoretical mathematics are closely related. New advances in the one area are always motivated by experiences from the other. Theoretical mathematical research helps provide the basis for the knowledge that is needed in order to prevent climate disasters, to prevent collapses in the world economy and to develop vaccines against AIDS and avian flu.

This year's Abel Prize winner formulates this as follows in an article: "... Mathematics in science can be compared to a tree. The roots and trunk are the mathematicians. This is where concepts and methods are generated; we study how various concepts are related to each other. From the trunk, the tree branches out, starting with the main branches, such as fluid theory or probability theory. The fluid will be treated differently, for example, if it concerns a gas, which then little by little results in weather forecasts or if it concerns fluids that are different if they have a low or high viscosity, are hot or cold, electrically charged or magnetised. Everything leads to different theories and specialists, but they are all in the common language of mathematics. Thus, the understanding of this language and the ability to passively or actively handle it is fundamental in a modern society and can be said to be the basis for a country's success. This expertise must embrace all levels."

The task of the mathematician is to do mathematics, just as historians study history and politicians practice politics. When the society is simultaneously equipped with clever minds that know how to build bridges, great things can happen.

The Abel Prize is a prize in mathematics. It is awarded to the most worthy mathematician, without considering what benefit the work of the person in question has had for you and me in our everyday lives. The prize is meant to encourage intellectual activity, curiosity and innovation, and it is a recognition that the humanly generated universe of thoughts and ideas that is mathematics is important to human development. Lennart Carleson is a very good example of precisely this idea.

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