The Abel Prize is awarded annually for outstanding scientific work in the field of mathematics and in 2009 it was presented to Mikhail Leonidovich Gromov, a French mathematician of Russian origin. Gromov has been a permanent professor at the Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques (IHES) since 1982, and received the award "for his revolutionary contributions to geometry".
Paris Region holds a special place in the mathematics world as home to many laboratories and specialist universities: IHES, Institut Henri Poincaré, Université Paris VI (300 researchers and teaching researchers), Paris VII and Paris Sud-Orsay (each with 150 researchers) as well as the Fondation Sciences Mathématiques de Paris, a world-class network of excellence bringing together nearly 1,000 researchers and 9 research centres. This research foundation has won numerous international distinctions, including 4 Fields Medals and 2 Abel Prizes (the mathematics equivalent to the Nobel Prize), 120 national and international prizewinners, including 3 of the 11 awards presented at the 2008 European Congress of Mathematics.
Photos Crédits : Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6
