Grigori Yakovlevich Perelman

Grigori Yakovlevich Perelman is a Russian mathematician and geometer known for his work in geometric analysis, Riemannian geometry and geometric topology. He proved the soul conjecture (1994) and, in 2002-2003, used Ricci flow with surgery to prove the Poincare conjecture and Thurston's geometrization conjecture, resolving a century-old open problem. He declined the Fields Medal (2006) and the Clay Millennium Prize (2010), withdrawing from professional mathematics in 2006 after resigning from the Steklov Institute in 2005. He lives in seclusion in Saint Petersburg.

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• Posted three arXiv preprints in 2002-2003 using Ricci flow with surgery to prove the Poincare and geometrization conjectures, resolving a century-old problem.Nov 2002
• Rejected the $1M Clay Millennium Prize on 1 July 2010, arguing the Clay Institute's decision was unfair because his contribution was no greater than Richard S. Hamilton's, who pioneered Ricci flow.Jul 2010
• Declined the Fields Medal in August 2006, saying 'I'm not interested in money or fame; I don't want to be on display like an animal in a zoo.'Aug 2006
• Resigned from his research post at the Steklov Institute in 2005 and stated in 2006 that he had quit professional mathematics, disappointed by the field's ethical standards.2006
• Won gold medal and a special prize for a perfect score (42/42) with the USSR team at the IMO in Budapest in July 1982, at age 16.Jul 1982
• Science recognized his Poincare conjecture proof as the 2006 Breakthrough of the Year, the first time the honor went to mathematics.Dec 22, 2006
• Proved the soul conjecture in 1994, an open problem for 20 years, partly in collaboration with Yuri Burago, Mikhael Gromov and Anton Petrunin.1994
• Trained from age 10 in Sergei Rukshin's after-school mathematics program, then attended Leningrad Secondary School 239; Rukshin tutored him in English in summer 1980 so he could enter the school.
• The first person to decline the Fields Medal, and the only person to reject a Clay Millennium Prize — a pattern that reflects his rejection of the field's rewards culture rather than any single dispute.
• Being selected for the Soviet IMO team gave him automatic entry to Leningrad State University, which he entered in autumn 1982.
• Born to Jewish parents Yakov (now in Israel) and Lyubov Perelman, who gave up graduate mathematics study to raise him; he lives with his mother in Saint Petersburg.