“Grand Unified Theory of Maths” Nets Abel Prize

The Canadian mathematician Robert Langlands, Professor Emeritus in the School of Mathematics, has won the 2018 Abel Prize — one of mathematics’ most-prestigious awards — for discovering surprising and far-ranging connections between algebra, number theory, and analysis, the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters announced on March 20.

Of the discovery of these connections, which earned the description the “grand unifying theory of maths,” Director Robbert Dijkgraaf remarked, “It’s almost like you are an archaeologist and you dig up a stone in the desert — and it turns out to be the top of a pyramid.”