Grigori Perelman

Born in 1966, Grigori Perelman is a highly influential, if somewhat eccentric, Russian mathematician. In 2002 he famously cracked the Poincar conjecture, one of topology s most weighty and complicated problems. However, the following year he reportedly quit mathematics to live with his mother in very modest circumstances in Saint Petersburg. In 2006 Perelman was honored with the esteemed Fields Medal for his work in furthering the understanding of geometry and particularly the Ricci flow, but he did not accept the award. I m not interested in money or fame; I don t want to be on display like an animal in a zoo, he explained. In 2010 he was offered the Clay Millennium Prize and one million dollars for his solving of the Poincar conjecture, but again he declined. I know how to control the universe. Why would I run to get a million, tell me? he said.