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Wolf Prize in Mathematics, Volume 4

Y. Sinai and E. Stein, editors
Publisher: 
World Scientific
Publication Date: 
2012
Number of Pages: 
603
Format: 
Hardcover
Price: 
182.00
ISBN: 
9789814390293
Category: 
Anthology
[Reviewed by
Fernando Q. Gouvêa
, on
10/10/2012
]

Volumes 3 and 4 of this series are quite similar in structure to the first two. There is a section for each of the winners, beginning with a curriculum vitae and list of publications. Then a few papers are presented. These vary a lot. They can be a few representative papers by the prize winner, or surveys of their work, or a combination. As in the first two volumes, these are photographically reproduced from the original publication, which can sometimes be disorienting. For example, the section for Philip A. Griffiths includes his "introductory comments" from the four volumes of his collected works. If one opens to these pages, the page heading just says something like "Introductory Comments to Part 2", and we are left wondering who wrote this and part two of what. Turning back a few pages doesn't help: the first page simply says "Introductory comments to part 1" without further information. Of course, looking at the table of contents fixes that.

The mathematicians included in volumes 3 and 4 are mostly recent winners of the prize, but the editors have taken the opportunity to also include earlier winners that didn't make it into the first two volumes. They appear in alphabetical order:

  • Volume 3: Arnold, Deligne, Fürstenberg, Gel'fand, Griffiths, Gromov, Margulis.
  • Volume 4: Mumford, Novikov, Sato, Selberg, Smale, Tate, Thompson.

Since those are some of the most important mathematicians of the last few decades, these volumes are a useful resource.


Fernando Q. Gouvêa is Carter Professor of Mathematics at Colby College in Waterville, ME.

The table of contents is not available.