Where is Perelman Grigory Yakovlevich now? "Geniuses cannot be condemned"

On November 11, 2002, an article by the St. Petersburg mathematician Grigory Perelman, in which he gave proofs of Poincaré's conjecture. Thus, the hypothesis became the first solved problem of the millennium - this is the name of mathematical questions, the answers to which have not been found for many years. Eight years later, the Clay Mathematical Institute awarded the scientist a prize of one million US dollars for this achievement, but Perelman refused it, saying that he did not need money and, moreover, did not agree with the official mathematical community. The refusal of a poor mathematician from a large sum aroused surprise in all strata of society. For this and for his reclusive lifestyle, Perelman is called the strangest Russian scientist. the site learned how Grigory Perelman lives and what he does today.

Mathematician # 1

Now Grigory Perelman is 51 years old. The scientist leads a secluded life: he practically does not leave the house, does not give interviews and is not officially employed anywhere. The mathematician never had close friends, but people who are familiar with Perelman say: he was not always like this.

“I remember Grisha as a teenager,” says Perelman’s housemate, Sergey Krasnov... - Although we live on different floors, we see each other sometimes. Previously, we could talk to his mother, Lyubov Leibovna, but now I rarely meet her. He and Grigory periodically go out for a walk, and so they are constantly at home. When I see you, they will nod quickly and move on. They don't communicate with anyone. And in his school years, Grisha was no different from other boys. Of course, even then he was actively interested in science and sat at books a lot, but he also found time for other things. He studied music, went out with friends, went in for sports. And then he sacrificed all his interests to mathematics. Was it worth it? Do not know".

Grigory always took first places in mathematics Olympiads, but once victory eluded him: in the eighth grade at the All-Union Olympiad, Perelman became only second. Since then, he gave up all his hobbies and leisure, plunging headlong into books, reference books and encyclopedias. Soon he made up for lost time and became the youngest mathematician in the country.

Seclusion

Krasnov declares: none of the residents of their house doubted that Perelman would become a great scientist. “When we learned that Grisha had proved Poincaré's hypothesis, which no other person in the world could have done, we were not even surprised,” the pensioner admits. - Of course, we were very happy for him, they decided: finally Grigory will break into people, make a dizzying career! Well done, he deserves it! But he chose a different path for himself. "

Perelman refused a cash prize of a million dollars, justifying his decision with disagreement with the official mathematical community, while adding that he did not need money.

After the name of Perelman thundered all over the world, the mathematician was invited to the United States. In America, the scientist made reports, exchanged experience with foreign colleagues and explained his methods of solving mathematical problems. The publicity quickly bored him. Returning to Russia, Perelman voluntarily left the post of leading researcher of the laboratory of mathematical physics, resigned from the St. Petersburg branch of the Steklov Mathematical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences and reduced his communication with colleagues to zero. Several years later, they wanted to make Perelman a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, but he refused. Having cut off almost all contacts with the outside world, the scientist locked himself in his apartment in Kupchino, on the outskirts of St. Petersburg, where he lives with his mother.

"Grisha was tortured with attention"

Now a mathematician very rarely leaves the house and spends whole days solving new problems. “Grisha and his mother live on the same pension as Lyubov Leibovna,” says Krasnov. - We, the tenants of the house, in no way condemn Grisha - they say, the man is in his prime, but does not bring money to the family, does not help the old mother. There is no such. He is a genius, and geniuses cannot be condemned. Once they even wanted to throw off the whole house, financially help them. But they refused - they said that they had enough. Lyubov Leibovna always said that Grisha is unpretentious: he has worn jackets or boots for decades, and for lunch he has enough macaroni and cheese. Well, don’t, so don’t. ”

According to the neighbors, any person in Perelman's place would become unsociable and closed: although the mathematician has not given reasons for discussion for a long time, his person still cannot be ignored. “Some journalists are on duty day and night at Perelman’s door,” says Sergei Petrovich indignantly. - Once we waited until Grisha and his mother left the apartment for a walk. The hefty cameraman literally dared Lyubov Leibovna to film the situation in their apartment - they are not very tidy, and they decided to focus on this. And the young correspondent pounced on Perelman himself with questions. After that, they did not go anywhere for a long time. Here everyone will have stress! Grisha was tortured with attention! "

The residents of the house are sure that Perelman will still make himself known by making a new discovery in the field of mathematics. “His works will not be wasted,” says Krasnov. "You just need to leave him alone and let him live in peace."

The history of mankind knows many people who, thanks to their outstanding abilities, became famous. However, it should be said that rarely any of them managed to become a real legend during their lifetime and achieve fame not only in the form of placing portraits in school textbooks. Few of the celebrities reached such a peak of fame, which was confirmed by the conversations of both the world scientific community and the grandmothers sitting on the bench at the entrance.

But in Russia there is such a person. And he lives in our time. This is the mathematician Perelman Grigory Yakovlevich. The main achievement of this great Russian scientist was the proof of Poincaré's hypothesis.

Even any ordinary Spaniard knows that Grigory Perelman is the most famous mathematician in the world. After all, this scientist refused to receive the Fields Prize, which the king of Spain himself should have presented to him. And, without any doubt, only the greatest people are capable of this.

A family

Grigory Perelman was born on June 13, 1966 in the Northern capital of Russia - the city of Leningrad. The father of the future genius was an engineer. In 1993 he left his family and emigrated to Israel.

Grigory's mother, Lyubov Leibovna, worked as a mathematics teacher at a vocational school. She, owning the violin, instilled in her son a love of classical music.

Grigory Perelman was not the only child in the family. He has a sister who is 10 years younger than him. Her name is Elena. She is also a mathematician; at one time she graduated from St. Petersburg University (in 1998). In 2003, Elena Perelman defended her Ph.D. thesis at the Reitsman Institute in Rehovot. Since 2007 she has been living in Stockholm, where she works as a programmer.

School years

Grigory Perelman, whose biography has developed so that today he is the most famous mathematician in the world, as a child was a shy and quiet Jewish boy. However, despite this, in knowledge he was significantly superior to his peers. And this allowed him to communicate with adults almost on an equal footing. His peers were still playing in the yard and making sand cakes, and Grisha was already mastering the basics of mathematical science with might and main. The books that were in the family library allowed him to do this. The mother of the future scientist, who was simply in love with this exact science, also contributed to the acquisition of knowledge. Also, the future Russian mathematician Grigory Perelman was fascinated by history and played chess perfectly, which his father taught him.

Nobody forced the boy to sit over the textbooks. Perelman Grigory's parents never tormented their son with moralizing that knowledge is power. He discovered the world of science for himself quite naturally and without any strain. And this was entirely facilitated by the family, whose main cult was not money at all, but knowledge. Parents never scolded Grisha for a lost button or a dirty sleeve. However, it was considered shameful, for example, to fake it by playing a melody on a violin.

The future mathematician Perelman went to school at the age of six. By this age, he was thoroughly grounded in all subjects. Grisha easily wrote, read and performed mathematical operations using three-digit numbers. And that was the time when his classmates only learned how to count to a hundred.

At school, the future mathematician Perelman was one of the strongest students. He repeatedly became the winner of the All-Russian mathematical competitions. Until the 9th grade, the future Russian scientist attended a secondary school located on the outskirts of Leningrad, where his family lived. Then he moved to school 239. She had a physical and mathematical bias. In addition, from the fifth grade, Gregory attended the mathematics center opened at the Palace of Pioneers. Classes were conducted here under the guidance of Sergei Rukshin, associate professor of the Russian State Pedagogical University. Pupils of this mathematician constantly won awards at various mathematical Olympiads.

In 1982, Grigory, as part of a team of Soviet schoolchildren, defended the honor of the country at the International Mathematical Olympiad held in Hungary. Our guys took first place then. And Perelman, who scored the maximum number of possible points, received a gold medal for the impeccable performance of all tasks proposed at the Olympiad. Today we can say that this was the last award that he accepted for his work.

It would seem that Grigory, an excellent student in all subjects, without any doubt, had to graduate from school with a gold medal. However, he was let down by physical education, according to which he could not pass the required standard. The class teacher had to simply beg the teacher to give the boy a four in his certificate. Yes, Grisha did not like sports loads. However, on this occasion, he absolutely did not have a complex. Physical education simply did not interest him as much as other disciplines. He always said that he was convinced that our body needs training, but at the same time he preferred to train not the arms and legs, but the brain.

Team relationships

At school, the future mathematician Perelman was a favorite. Not only teachers, but also classmates sympathized with him. Grisha was not a crammer and a nerd. He did not allow himself to trump the knowledge he had received, the depth of which sometimes confused even teachers. He was just a talented child who was fond of not only proving complex theorems, but also classical music. The girls appreciated their classmate for their eccentricity and intelligence, and the boys for their firm and calm character. Grisha not only studied with ease. He helped in mastering knowledge and his lagging classmates.

In Soviet times, a strong student was attached to each student who was bad, who helped him to improve in any subject. The same order was given to Gregory. He had to help a classmate who was absolutely not interested in studying. In less than two months of classes, Grisha made a solid good student out of a poor student. And this is not surprising. After all, the presentation of complex material at an accessible level is one of the unique abilities of the famous Russian mathematician. Largely due to this quality, Poincaré's theorem was proved by Grigory Perelman in the future.

Student years

After successfully graduating from school, Grigory Perelman became a student at the Leningrad State University. Without any exams, he was enrolled in the Mathematics and Mechanics Department of this higher educational institution.

Perelman did not lose his interest in mathematics during his student years. He constantly became the winner of university, city, and all-Union Olympiads. The future Russian mathematician studied as well as at school. For excellent knowledge he was awarded the Lenin scholarship.

Further training

After graduating with honors from the university, Grigory Perelman entered graduate school. His scientific advisor in those years was the famous mathematician A.D. Alexandrov.

The postgraduate study was at the Leningrad branch of the Institute of Mathematics named after V.I. V.A. Steklov. In 1992, Grigory Yakovlevich defended his Ph.D. thesis. The topic of his work concerned saddle surfaces in Euclidean spaces. Later, Perelman stayed to work at the same institute, taking the position of senior researcher in the laboratory of mathematical physics. During this period, he continued to study the theory of space and was able to prove several hypotheses.

Work in the USA

In 1992, Grigory Perelman was invited to Stony Brook University and New York University. These educational institutions of America offered the scientist to spend one semester there.

In 1993, Grigory Yakovlevich continued to teach at Berkeley, at the same time conducting scientific work there. It was at this time that Perelman Grigory became interested in Poincaré's theorem. It was the most complicated problem of modern mathematics that was not solved at that time.

Return to Russia

In 1996, Grigory Yakovlevich returned back to St. Petersburg. He again received the post of research assistant at the Institute. Steklov. At the same time, he single-handedly worked on the Poincaré conjecture.

Description of the theory

The problem arose in 1904. It was then that the French scientist Andri Poincaré, who in scientific circles was considered a mathematical universal because of the development of new methods of celestial mechanics and the creation of topology, put forward a new mathematical hypothesis. He suggested that the space around us is a three-dimensional sphere.

It is rather difficult to describe the essence of the hypothesis for a common man in the street. There are too many scientific calculations in it. As an example, you can imagine an ordinary balloon. In the circus, a wide variety of figures can be made from it. These can be dogs, bunks and flowers. And what is the bottom line? The ball from this remains the same. It does not change either its physical properties or its molecular composition.

The same is the case with this hypothesis. Its topic relates to topology. This is the branch of geometry that studies the variety that spatial objects have. Topology examines various, outwardly dissimilar objects and finds common features in them.

Poincaré tried to prove the fact that our universe has the shape of a sphere. According to his theory, all simply connected three-dimensional manifolds have the same structure. They are simply connected due to the presence of a single continuous region of the body, in which there are no through holes. It can be a sheet of paper and a glass, a rope and an apple. But a colander and a cup with a handle are completely different objects in their essence.

The concept of geomorphism follows from topology. It includes the concept of geomorphic objects, that is, those when one can get from one another by stretching or compressing. For example, a ball (a piece of clay) from which a potter makes a regular pot. And if the master does not like the product, he can immediately turn it back into a ball. If the potter decides to mold a cup, then the handle for it will have to be made separately. That is, he creates his object in a different way, receiving not a whole, but a composite product.

Suppose that all objects in our world consist of an elastic, but at the same time, non-sticky substance. This material does not allow us to glue individual parts and glue holes. It can only be used to squeeze or squeeze. Only in this case will you get a new form.

This is the main meaning of Poincaré's conjecture. It says that if you take any three-dimensional object that has no holes, then, when performing various manipulations, but without gluing and cutting, it can take the shape of a ball.

However, the hypothesis is only the stated version. And this continues until the moment, until she finds an exact explanation. Poincaré's assumptions remained so until they were confirmed by the precise calculations of the young Russian mathematician.

Working on the problem

Grigory Perelman spent several years of his life to prove the Poincaré hypothesis. All this time he thought only about his work. He was constantly looking for the right ways and approaches to solving the problem and realized that the proof was somewhere nearby. And the mathematician was not wrong.

Even in his student years, the future scientist often liked to repeat the phrase that there are no unsolvable problems. There are only intractable ones. He always believed that everything depends only on the initial data and the time it takes to find the missing ones.

During his stay in America, Grigory Yakovlevich often attended various events. Perelman was especially interested in lectures led by mathematician Richard Hamilton. This scientist also tried to prove the Poincaré hypothesis. Hamilton even developed his own Ricci flow technique, which, rather, was not related to mathematics, but to physics. However, all this interested Grigory Yakovlevich very much.

After returning to Russia, Perelman literally plunged headlong into work on the problem. And after a short period of time he managed to make significant progress in this matter. He approached the solution of the problem completely outside the box. He used Ricci flows as a proof tool.

Perelman sent his calculations to an American colleague. However, he did not even try to delve into the calculations of the young scientist and flatly refused to carry out joint work.

Of course, his doubts can be easily explained. Indeed, in citing evidence, Perelman relied more on the postulates available in theoretical physics. A topological geometric problem was solved by him with the help of related sciences. At first glance, this method was completely incomprehensible. Hamilton did not understand the calculations and was skeptical about the symbiosis that was unexpected for him, which was used as evidence.

He did what was interesting to him

In order to prove the Poincaré theorem (the mathematical formula of the Universe), Grigory Perelman did not appear in scientific circles for a long seven years. Colleagues did not know what he was developing, what was the scope of his occupation. Many could not even answer the question "Where is Grigory Perelman now?"

Everything was resolved in November 2002. It was during this period on one of the scientific resources, where one could get acquainted with the latest developments and articles of physicists, that Perelman's 39-page work appeared, in which the proofs of the geometrization theorem were given. Poincaré's hypothesis was considered as a particular example to explain the essence of the study.

Simultaneously with this publication, Grigory Yakovlevich sent the work he completed to Richard Hamilton, as well as the mathematician Ren Tian from China, with whom he communicated back in New York. A few more scientists, whose opinion Perelman especially trusted, received a proof of the theorem.

Why was the work of several years of the mathematician's life so easily released, because these proofs could simply be stolen? However, Perelman, who completed the work for a million dollars, did not at all want to get hold of it or emphasize his uniqueness. He believed that if there is a mistake in his proofs, then they can be taken as a basis for other scientists. And that would already give him satisfaction.

Yes, Grigory Yakovlevich was never an upstart. He always knew exactly what he wanted from life, and had his own opinion on any occasion, which often differed from the generally accepted one.

Money can not buy happiness

What is Grigory Perelman known for? Not only by proving a hypothesis included in the list of seven millennium mathematical problems that have not been solved by scientists. The fact is that Perelman Grigory refused a million-dollar prize, which the Boston Institute of Mathematics named after V.I. Clay. And this was not accompanied by any explanation.

Of course, Perelman really wanted to prove Poincaré's conjecture. He dreamed of solving a puzzle, the solution of which was not obtained by anyone. And here the Russian scientist showed the passion of a researcher. At the same time, it was intertwined with the intoxicating sense of being a pioneer.

Grigory Yakovlevich's interest in the hypothesis moved into the category of "completed cases". Does a true mathematician need a million dollars? No! The main thing for him is the feeling of his own victory. And it is simply impossible to measure it by earthly standards.

According to the rules, the Clay Prize can be awarded when a person who has solved one or several Millennium Problems at once sends his scientific article to the editorial office of the Institute's journal. Here it is examined in detail and carefully checked. And only two years later a verdict can be passed, which will confirm or deny the correctness of the decision.

The verification of the results obtained by Perelman was carried out from 2004 to 2006. Three independent groups of mathematicians were engaged in this work. All of them made an unambiguous conclusion that the Poincaré conjecture was completely proved.

The prize was awarded to Grigory Perelman in March 2010. For the first time in history, the award was to be awarded for solving one of the problems on the list of "mathematical problems of the millennium." However, Perelman simply did not attend the conference in Paris. On 1.07.2010, he publicly announced his refusal from the award.

Of course, for many people, Perelman's act seems inexplicable. The man easily gave up honors and fame, and also missed the chance to move to America and live comfortably there until the end of his days. However, for Grigory Yakovlevich, all this does not carry any semantic meaning. Just like school physical education lessons used to be.

Seclusion

To date, Grigory Perelman does not remind himself of himself by word or deed. Where does this outstanding person live? In Leningrad, in one of the usual high-rise buildings in Kupchino. Grigory Perelman lives with his mother. His personal life did not work out. However, the mathematician does not give up hope of starting a family.

Grigory Yakovlevich does not communicate with Russian journalists. He kept his contacts only with the foreign press. However, despite the seclusion, interest in this person does not fade away. Books are written about him. Grigory Perelman is often mentioned in scientific articles and essays. Where is Grigory Perelman now? Still at home. Many believe that they will hear this name more than once, and maybe in connection with the solution of the next "millennium problem".

The strangeness of a great man is commensurate with his genius. Therefore, when the mathematical world learned that the unsociable Petersburg mathematician Grigory Yakovlevich Perelman refused a million dollar prize for proving the Poincaré conjecture, everyone understood that a new Karl Friedrich Gauss had appeared in Russia, hiding his discovery of non-Euclidean geometry in secret.

The story is as follows. In 2006, Science magazine called Perelman's proof of Poincaré's theorem a scientific breakthrough, and a year later the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph published a list of "One Hundred Living Geniuses", in which Grigory Perelman ranks 9th. In addition to Perelman, only 2 Russians were included in this list - Garry Kasparov and Mikhail Kalashnikov.

G. Perelman's discovery was awarded the highest mathematical award - the international Fields Medal, equated to the Nobel Prize (as is known, there is no Nobel Prize for work in the field of mathematics). The official wording at the award was: "For his contribution to geometry and his revolutionary ideas in the study of the geometric and analytical structure of the Ricci flow"). And in March 2010, the Clay Mathematical Institute awarded Grigory Perelman a prize of one million US dollars for proving the Poincaré conjecture. This marked the first ever award of an award for solving one of the Millennium Challenges. So: Perelman refused both Fields and the award, motivating it as follows: “I refused. You know, I had a lot of reasons in both directions. That's why I took so long to decide. In short, the main reason is disagreement with the organized mathematical community. I do not like their decisions, I consider them unfair. I believe that the contribution of the American mathematician Hamilton to the solution of this problem is no less than mine. "

My task does not include either the analysis of the Poincaré problem, or the arguments of Perelman (see Appendix) - these questions are far from the understanding of the "intellectual majority", which, if interested in the Perelmans, is not their discoveries, but their deviations from the norm. And deviations from Perelman's norm really overflowed: an unsociable mystery man who voluntarily left a prestigious job, who chose the lifestyle of an ascetic in a tiny apartment in St. giving interviews and interrupting from bread to water on the beggarly pension of an elderly mother and only once said: "There is nothing to live on."

I am not saying that the homeland has abandoned its hero. They say that some St. Petersburg university invited him to teach, offering the failed millionaire a salary of $ 300. Perelman refused a pitiful handout, believing that it is impossible to consider science as a commodity ...

However, the point is not in the assessment of labor, but in moral criteria and something else intimate. Because for all the oddities of this indisputably great man, he agreed to work in a Swedish research company that guaranteed him a decent life, comfortable housing and doing what he loved.

Israeli television producer Alexander Zabrovsky, burning with the desire to make a feature film about Perelman and persuading the mathematician to give consent for several years, said that it was he who helped Grigory Yakovlevich find a job to his liking and solve his financial problems:
- He was given a decent monthly salary, given housing in one of the small towns in Sweden. Now he is doing what he loves and no longer experiences material problems. Mom went with him. The half-sister of Grigory Yakovlevich is also there. Science knows no geographic or national barriers. The main thing is that his mind is beneficial to society and he himself is good and comfortable. The work is related to nanotechnology.

Perelman received a passport and a visa for a period of 10 years, the documents indicate the reason for the trip - "scientific activity".

The situation is commented by Vladimir Fok, a mathematics teacher at the University of Strasbourg: “Russian scientists have 2 main troubles - very low wages and dependence on an incompetent administration. People who have nothing to do with science like to put spokes in their wheels, although they should help.
I myself went to Strasbourg for this reason, although I tried to stay in Russia, worked on temporary contracts. But my institute, in my opinion, ceased to exist as a scientific institution and I was forced to emigrate. Now about 80% of students go abroad. And eminent scientists also leave the country. To all the difficulties of a scientist is added social condemnation - with us, being a man of science is like being a fool. While in the West such a social status commands respect. "

Apparently, Grigory Yakovlevich decided to be closer to his relatives, to his sister, who also received a mathematical education. He took his old mother with him.

I am infinitely sorry for Grishin's mother, - commented Sergey Rukshin, a teacher and friend of the Fields laureate, on the situation. - She has long been in need of good medicines, special care, which Grisha could not provide. I, other people who know him closely, have repeatedly offered help, including material help, but he constantly refused. With money, he is always extremely scrupulous.

It is almost impossible to stop emigration from Russia. Western countries still look attractive to the people of the ruined country. This applies to both material well-being and the stability associated with the observance of civil liberties and peace, to which intellectuals are drawn. The loss in the 20th century of millions of their fellow citizens, and far from the worst, is a very bitter lesson for Russia.

Academician Ludwig Faddeev, Director of the V.I. VA Steklova, in one of the issues of the journal "In the world of science" "(2014, No. 2) wrote:" Our institute had 110 employees, 70 of them were doctors. 40 left. "That is, more than half of the scientists of the highest qualifications emigrated ... They not only left, they changed the face of the science of sciences - foreign mathematics ... "

At the Institute for High Pressure Physics. Vereshchagin Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1988, 700 people worked, now - 150 ... In my NSC KIPT - 6500, now - 2300 ...

The number of highly qualified specialists who left Russia has more than doubled in three years - from 20 thousand people in 2013 to 44 thousand people in 2016. Nikolai Dolgushkin, Chief Scientific Secretary of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences, spoke about this at the general meeting of the Russian Academy of Sciences. “The average age of a researcher has exceeded 50, and one in three has reached retirement age,” he added. “Since 1990, the number of researchers in the country has decreased by 2.7 times, and the average annual reduction in personnel engaged in research and development since 2000 has been 1.3% per year,” Dolgushkin said. In the European Union and the United States, the number of scientists during this time increased by 2-3%, and in Brazil, Korea and China - from 7% to 10%.

Russian economist Leonid Grigoriev said that "over the past ten years, two million democrats have left Russia," and Alexander Shchetinin called the brain drain "an escape from the zombie empire." The author of the article “The General Exodus of Russians from Russia” (http://besttoday.ru/read/5404.html) writes: “We have become a third world country in terms of infrastructure and security. We do not have normal schools, hospitals and universities. Any contact with the state requires money, nerves and papers, and more and more. Literally every part of the free living space is filled with bureaucratic instructions, like carbon dioxide displaces oxygen in a locked room. And when the people who arranged a kirdyk for Russia explain to us what the problem is, they say: "This is because there are enemies around."

The number of people employed in science only from 1991 to 1999 in Russia decreased by more than two times (from 878.5 thousand to 386.8 thousand people), and tens of thousands of Russian scientists moved to the United States alone. According to official statistics, up to 60% of Russians - winners of international Olympiads - leave for work abroad. The most serious situation is in applied areas: the best specialists go to foreign companies.

A few specific examples. Mikhail Leonidovich Gromov is a world-renowned mathematician, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, laureate of the Abel Prize. He emigrated to the United States in 1974. The Abel Prize in mathematics is also considered the equivalent of the Nobel Prize. It was awarded to Mikhail Leonidovich Gromov for "his revolutionary contribution to geometry."

David (Dmitry Alexandrovich) Kazhdan is an Israeli, formerly Soviet and American mathematician. He emigrated from the USSR in the mid-1970s to the United States, in 2002 he moved to Israel. David Kazhdan is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Israel Academy of Sciences. In 2012 he became a laureate of the State Prize in Mathematics and Informatics. Professor Kazhdan made a great contribution to the development of group theory, which is the cornerstone of mathematics, but its provisions also apply to physics, quantum theory and computer science.

Voevodsky Vladimir Aleksandrovich is a Russian and American mathematician, one of the outstanding scientists and innovators of our time in the field of algebraic geometry. In 2002, Vladimir Voevodsky won the John Fields Prize, the highest prize of the International Congress of Mathematicians. After graduating from Moscow State University, he completed an internship at Harvard and emigrated to the United States. He is now a professor at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton.

Andrey Konstantinovich Geim is a famous physicist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics 2010, a member of the Royal Society of London, known as one of the discoverers of graphene, a two-dimensional allotropic modification of carbon. On December 31, 2011, by the decree of Queen Elizabeth II, he was awarded the title of knight for his services to science with the official right to add the title "sir" to his name. The achievements of Phystech graduates Andrey Geim and Konstantin Novoselov are now proud of as their own in Great Britain.

Abrikosov Aleksey Alekseevich - famous physicist, Nobel Prize laureate in physics (2003), Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Physics and Mathematics. The main work has been done in the field of condensed matter physics. In 1991 he moved to the USA.

Lev Petrovich Gorkov - Soviet-American physicist, Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences. In 1991, Gorkov immigrated to the United States, where he worked at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and then as director of the National Laboratory for Strong Magnetic Fields in Tallahassee, Florida. In 2005, Lev Petrovich was elected a member of the US National Academy of Sciences.

Simon Smith Smith is an economist, statistician, demographer, and economic historian. Winner of the 1971 Nobel Prize in Economics "for an empirically informed interpretation of economic growth that has led to a new, deeper understanding of the economic and social structure and development process in general." The name of Kuznets is associated with the formation of economics as an empirical scientific discipline and the development of quantitative economic history.

Leonid Solomonovich Gurvich is an economist and professor emeritus at the University of Minnesota. Served on the Coles Commission and won the 2007 Nobel Prize in Economics. Known as one of the founders of the theory of optimal mechanisms.

Professor Andrey Gudkov, Senior Vice President of the Oncological Institute named after Roswell Park, Buffalo, USA, author of over a hundred scientific papers in the field of cancer treatment writes:
- You can talk about the feeling of gratitude and duty to the society that raised you, gave you knowledge. For me, such an unpaid debt is, first of all, an education that I could pass on to young people living in Russia. But, on the other hand, I am sincerely convinced that I bring more benefit to science by my work abroad, since the technical capabilities and speed available there allow one to achieve incomparable results in a unit of time. I am happy where I work now. There are about 40 Russian-speaking families in Buffalo - we are creating a micro-society, no one is forcing us to change our culture. There is no ideology here, we are trying to work in the Russian Federation, but I’m unlikely to return: firstly, I’m many years old, and secondly, it seems to me that it’s more useful to continue an existing business than to start something anew here.

Today's Russia is still unable to compete for talent in the global labor market, so researchers prefer to look for work abroad, - these are the findings of a study by the Boston Consulting Group, which was attended by 24 thousand respondents from Russia. According to the results of this study: exactly half of Russian scientists seek to get a job abroad, as well as 52% of top managers, 54% of IT specialists, 49% of engineering workers and 46% of doctors. 65% of potential expats are “digital talent”: artificial intelligence specialists, scrum masters, user interface designers, etc. Moreover, 57% of them are young people under the age of 30. For students, this share reaches 59%. "To work in Russia is to swim without water", "Study, study and rush away" - these are the slogans of political analysts.

Among the reasons for leaving are: an increase in qualifications, a higher standard of living and expansion of career opportunities. In addition, reasons such as economic instability in the home country and the higher quality of public services abroad - in health care, education and childcare - were often cited.

Every year 100 thousand people leave Russia for developed countries, according to the data of the RANEPA. This figure, cited by the host countries, is 7 times higher than the official figure of Rosstat.

In October 2009, scientists who left Russia in the early 90s and made a successful career abroad wrote an open letter to the President and Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, drawing attention to the disastrous state of fundamental science in the country and the consequence of this problem - a massive outflow of scientists abroad. ... On the same days, 407 doctors of sciences working at the institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) wrote an open letter of a similar content to the country's authorities. Two letters to a single address, sent from different parts of the planet, are the last desperate attempts to save Russian science.

“Due to the age structure of scientific and pedagogical personnel, Russia has 5-7 years left for qualified scientists and teachers of the older generation to have time to prepare a new generation for science, education and high-tech industries. If within these terms young people cannot be attracted to the scientific and educational sphere, then plans to build an innovative economy will have to be forgotten ... ”- write 407 doctors of sciences from academic institutions in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Ivanov and other Russian cities. Solidarity with colleagues and Russian scientists who went abroad and took place there. “Science continues to regress, the scale and severity of the danger of this process is underestimated. The level of funding for Russian science contrasts sharply with the corresponding indicators of developed countries. " Indeed, in the days of the USSR, the budget of the Academy of Sciences was equal to 2% of GDP, and now it is less than 0.3%.

APPENDIX ABOUT THE POINCARE HYPOTHESIS

The problem solved by Perelman belongs to a branch of mathematics called topology. It is often referred to as "rubber sheet geometry". It deals with the properties of geometric shapes, which are preserved if the shape is stretched, twisted, and bent. In other words, it is deformed without tears, cuts and glues.
Topology is important for mathematics and mathematical physics, as it allows you to understand the properties of space. Or evaluate it without being able to look at the shape of this space from the outside. For example, to our Universe.
To explain Poincaré's hypothesis, it is necessary: ​​to imagine a two-dimensional sphere - a rubber circle stretched over a ball. Likewise, you can tie a sports backpack with a cord. The result will be a sphere: from the outside - three-dimensional, but from the point of view of mathematics - only two-dimensional. Then they offer to pull the same circle over a donut. It seems to work out. But the edges of the disc will converge into a circle, which can no longer be pulled into a point - it will cut the donut.
What follows is much more complicated: it is necessary to imagine a three-dimensional sphere stretched over a four-dimensional ball. As another Russian mathematician, Vladimir Uspensky, wrote, "unlike two-dimensional spheres, three-dimensional spheres are inaccessible to our direct observation, and it is as difficult for us to imagine them as it is for Vasily Ivanovich from the well-known anecdote of a square trinomial."
So, according to Poincaré's hypothesis, a three-dimensional sphere is the only three-dimensional gizmo, the surface of which can be pulled into one point by some hypothetical "hypercord". Jules Henri Poincaré suggested this in 1904. Now Perelman has convinced all topologists that the great French mathematician was right. And turned his hypothesis into a theorem.
The proof helps to understand what shape our universe has. And it allows us to quite reasonably assume that it is the very same three-dimensional sphere. But if the Universe is the only "figure" that can be pulled into a point, then, probably, it can be stretched from a point. That serves as an indirect confirmation of the Big Bang theory, which states that the Universe originated from the point.

Grigory Yakovlevich Perelman(b. June 13, 1966, Leningrad, USSR) - outstanding, the first to prove Poincaré's hypothesis.

Grigory Perelman was born on June 13, 1966 in Leningrad into a Jewish family. His father, Yakov, was an electrical engineer and emigrated to Israel in 1993. Mother, Lyubov Leibovna, remained in St. Petersburg, worked as a mathematics teacher at a vocational school. It was the mother who played the violin who instilled in the future mathematician a love of classical music.

Until the 9th grade, Perelman studied in a secondary school on the outskirts of the city, however, in the 5th grade he began to study at the mathematics center at the Palace of Pioneers under the guidance of Sergei Rukshin, associate professor of the Russian State Pedagogical University, whose students won many awards at mathematical olympiads. In 1982, as part of a team of Soviet schoolchildren, he won a gold medal at the International Mathematical Olympiad in Budapest, receiving a full point for the impeccable solution of all problems. Perelman graduated from the 239th Physics and Mathematics School in the city of Leningrad. He played table tennis well, attended a music school. I did not receive a gold medal only because of physical education, without passing the TRP standards.

He was enrolled in the Faculty of Mathematics and Mechanics of the Leningrad State University without exams. He won the faculty, city and all-Union student mathematical Olympiads. All the years I studied only with excellent marks. For his academic success he received a Lenin scholarship. After graduating with honors from the university, he entered the postgraduate course (supervisor - Academician A.D. Aleksandrov) at the Leningrad Department of the Mathematical Institute. V.A. Steklov (LOMI - until 1992; then - POMI). Having defended his Ph.D. thesis in 1990, he remained to work at the institute as a senior researcher.

In the early 1990s, Perelman arrived in the United States, where he worked as a research assistant at various universities, where his attention was drawn to one of the most complex, at that time unsolved problems of modern mathematics - the Poincaré Hypothesis. He surprised his colleagues with the asceticism of life; his favorite food was milk, bread and cheese. In 1996 he returned to St. Petersburg, continuing to work at POMI, where he worked alone to solve the Poincaré Problem.

In 2002-2003, Grigory Perelman published his three famous articles on the Internet, in which he summarized his original method for solving the Poincaré Problem:

• The entropy formula for the Ricci flow and its geometric applications
• Ricci flow with surgery on three-manifolds
• Finite extinction time for the solutions to the Ricci flow on certain three-manifolds

The appearance on the Internet of Perelman's first article on the entropy formula for the Ricci flow caused an immediate international sensation in the scientific community. In 2003, Grigory Perelman accepted an invitation to visit a number of American universities, where he gave a series of talks on his work on proving the Poincaré Problem. In America, Perelman spent a lot of time explaining his ideas and methods, both in public lectures organized for him and in personal meetings with a number of mathematicians. After his return to Russia, he answered numerous questions from his foreign colleagues by e-mail.

In 2004-2006, three independent groups of mathematicians were involved in the verification of Perelman's results: 1) Bruce Kleiner, John Lott, University of Michigan; 2) Zhu Xiping, Sun Yatsen University, Cao Huidong, Lihai University; 3) John Morgan, Columbia University, Gang Tian, ​​Massachusetts Institute of Technology. All three groups concluded that the Poincaré Problem had been successfully solved, but Chinese mathematicians Zhu Xiping and Cao Huidong, along with their teacher Yau Shintang, attempted plagiarism, claiming that they had found a "complete proof." They later retracted this statement.

In December 2005, Grigory Perelman resigned from the post of leading researcher at the laboratory of mathematical physics, resigned from POMI and almost completely cut off contacts with colleagues.

He showed no interest in a further scientific career. Currently, he lives in Kupchino in the same apartment with his mother, leads a secluded life, ignores the press.

Scientific contribution

Main article: Poincaré's hypothesis

In 1994 he proved the hypothesis of the soul (differential geometry).

Grigory Perelman, in addition to his outstanding natural talent, being a representative of the Leningrad geometric school, at the beginning of his work on Poincaré's Problem had a broader scientific outlook than his foreign colleagues. In addition to other major mathematical innovations that made it possible to overcome all the difficulties faced by mathematicians dealing with this problem, Perelman developed and applied the purely Leningrad theory of Aleksandrov spaces for the analysis of Ricci flows. In 2002, Perelman first published his pioneering work devoted to solving one of the special cases of William Thurston's geometrization hypothesis, which implies the validity of the famous Poincaré hypothesis, formulated by the French mathematician, physicist and philosopher Henri Poincaré in 1904. The method described by the scientist for studying the Ricci flow was named Hamilton - Perelman theory.

Recognition and evaluation

In 1996 he was awarded the European Mathematical Society Prize for Young Mathematicians, but refused to receive it.

In 2006, Grigory Perelman was awarded the Fields Medal international prize for solving the Poincaré hypothesis (the official wording at the award was “For his contribution to geometry and his revolutionary ideas in the study of the geometric and analytical structure of the Ricci flow”), but he also rejected it.

In 2006, Science called the Proof of Poincaré's Theorem Breakthrough of the Year. Breakthrough of the year). This is the first work in mathematics to deserve such a title.

In 2006, Sylvia Nazar and David Gruber published the article "Manifold Destiny", which talks about Grigory Perelman, his work on solving the Poincaré Problem, ethical principles in science and the mathematical community, and also contains a rare interview with himself. The article devotes considerable space to criticism of the Chinese mathematician Yau Shintan, who, together with his students, tried to challenge the completeness of the proof of the Poincaré Hypothesis proposed by Grigory Perelman. From an interview with Grigory Perelman:

In 2006, The New York Times published an article by Dennis Overbye “Scientist at Work: Shing-Tung Yau. The Emperor of Math ". The article is devoted to the biography of Professor Yau Shintan and the scandal associated with accusations against him in attempts to belittle Perelman's contribution to the proof of the Poincaré Hypothesis. The article cites a fact unheard of in mathematics - Yau Shintan hired a law firm to defend his case and threatened to prosecute his critics.

In 2007, the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph published a list of "One Hundred Living Geniuses", in which Grigory Perelman ranks 9th. In addition to Perelman, only 2 Russians were included in this list - Garry Kasparov (25th place) and Mikhail Kalashnikov (83rd place).

In March 2010, the Clay Mathematical Institute awarded Grigory Perelman a US $ 1 million Proof of the Poincaré Conjecture Prize, the first ever Millennium Problem Award. In June 2010, Perelman ignored a mathematical conference in Paris, which was supposed to award the Millennium Prize for proving the Poincaré conjecture, and on July 1, 2010, he publicly announced his rejection of the prize, motivating it as follows:

Note that such a public assessment of the merits of Richard Hamilton by the mathematician who proved the Poincaré Hypothesis may be an example of nobility in science, since, according to Perelman himself, Hamilton, who collaborated with Yau Shintan, noticeably slowed down in his research, faced with insurmountable technical difficulties.

In September 2011, the Clay Institute, together with the Henri Poincaré Institute (Paris), established a position for young mathematicians, the money for which will come from the Millennium Prize awarded but not accepted by Grigory Perelman.

In 2011, Richard Hamilton and Demetrios Christodoul were awarded the so-called. Shao Prize in Mathematics of $ 1,000,000, also sometimes called the Nobel Prize of the East. Richard Hamilton was awarded for the creation of a mathematical theory, which was then developed by Grigory Perelman in his work on the proof of the Poincaré conjecture. It is known that Hamilton accepted this award.

Interesting Facts

• In his work "Formula of entropy for the Ricci flow and its geometric applications" (eng. The entropy formula for the Ricci flow and its geometric applications) Grigory Perelman humorously points out that his work was partially financed by personal savings saved during his visits to the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, State University of New York (SUNY), State University of New York at Stony Brook and the University of California in Berkeley, and thanks the organizers of these trips. At the same time, the official mathematical community allocated millions of grants to selected research groups in order to understand and test Perelman's work.
• When a member of the recruiting committee at Stanford University asked Perelman C.V. (summary), as well as letters of recommendation, Perelman objected:

• The Manifold Destiny article was noticed by the outstanding mathematician Vladimir Arnold, who suggested reprinting it in the Moscow journal Uspekhi Matematicheskikh Nauk, where he was a member of the editorial board. The editor-in-chief of the magazine, Sergei Novikov, refused him. According to Arnold, the refusal was due to the fact that the editor-in-chief of the magazine feared revenge from Yau, as he also worked in the United States.
• The biographical book of Masha Gessen tells about the fate of Perelman “Perfect rigor. Grigory Perelman: genius and the task of the millennium " based on numerous interviews with his teachers, classmates, co-workers and colleagues. Perelman's teacher Sergei Rukshin criticized the book.

• Grigory Perelman became the protagonist of the documentary film "The Charm of the Poincaré Hypothesis" directed by Masahito Kasugi, filmed by the Japanese public broadcaster NHK in 2008.
• In April 2010, the issue of the Khrushchob Millionaire talk show Let Them Talk was dedicated to Grigory Perelman. It was attended by friends of Grigory, his school teachers, as well as journalists who communicated with Perelman.
• In the 27th edition of "Big Difference" on Channel One, a parody of Grigory Perelman was presented in the audience. The role of Perelman was simultaneously performed by 9 actors.
• It is a common misconception that the father of Grigory Yakovlevich Perelman is Yakov Isidorovich Perelman, a well-known popularizer of physics, mathematics and astronomy. However, Ya. I. Perelman died more than 20 years before the birth of Grigory Perelman.
• On April 28, 2011 "Komsomolskaya Pravda" reported that Perelman had given an interview to the executive producer of the Moscow film company "President-Film" Alexander Zabrovsky and agreed to shoot a feature film about him. Masha Gessen, however, doubts that these statements are true. Vladimir Gubailovsky also believes that the interview with Perelman is fictional.