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  Memorabilia
of
Mathematics



The Mathematical Bridge
Queens' College, Cambridge

One of the many legends surrounding this bridge is that it was constructed without nails or bolts.

Click on images in this column for other views and information.

or Archimedes as represented on the Fields Medal. Click on the Medal to see a picture of his tomb in Syracuse, Italy, . . .

. . . and here to see a modern tribute to Archimedes on the campus of San Jose State University.








 
A monument to Newton
in the foyer of the Chapel,
Trinity College, Cambridge.
The names in the background are
those of Trinity students who died
in WW II.

Nearby is the statue of Newton's teacher, Isaac Barrow, the first Lucasian Professor of Mathematics.
The current occupant is Stephen Hawking.


Tell us where there is a street sign, monument, building,
or room in a building, dedicated to a mathematician.

Bowditch?  Wiener?  Sylvester?

We will add your contribution and name to this collection.

The Fields Medal and Nobel Prize
1936 L V Ahlfors
1936 J Douglas
1950 L Schwartz
1950 A Selberg
1954 K Kodaira
1954 J-P Serre
1958 K F Roth
1958 R Thom
1962 L V Hörmander
1962 J W Milnor
1966 M F Atiyah
1966 P J Cohen
1966 A Grothendieck
1966 S Smale
1970 A Baker
1970 H Hironaka
1970 S P Novikov
1970 J G Thompson
1974 E Bombieri
1974 D B Mumford
1978 P R Deligne
1978 C L Fefferman
1978 G A Margulis
1978 D G Quillen
1982 A Connes
1982 W P Thurston
1982 S-T Yau
1986 S Donaldson
1986 G Faltings
1986 M Freedman
1990 V Drinfeld
1990 V Jones
1990 S Mori
1990 E Witten
1994 P-L Lions
1994 J-C Yoccoz
1994 J Bourgain
1994 E Zelmanov
1998 R Borcherds
1998 T Gowers
1998 Maxim Kontsevich
1998 C McMullen
2002 L Lafforgue
2002 V Voevodsky
2006
Andrei Okounkov
Terence Tao
Wendelin Werner
(Grigory Perelman)

For more information on the Medal and the winners:

http://elib.zib.de/IMU/medals/
 
 

The 2002 Fields Medals were presented in Beijing by the President of China and the President of the ICM2002.  The ceremony was attended by 4,500 people.  Most memorable to these participants is that everyone was transported from the Convention Center to the Peoples' Hall in Tien An Men Square for a banquet.  All traffic was halted for the long caravan of buses.  This convention of mathematicians felt deeply honored by the citizens of Beijing.

No one knows for sure why there is no
Nobel Prize in mathematics.  There are several hypotheses that broach on becoming legends.

However, we are very proud that John Nash
received this recognition in Economics in 1994.

 
The criteria for selection to be listed in the National Curve Bank are simple.  The mathematician must have a monument, street, or building named for him or her.  Thus, the person must have recognition beyond the circle of our professional community.  We could easily list Fields Medal winners, Nobel laureates whose  work is primarily mathematical, and members of national societies.  We could include a list of mathematicians on stamps.  Many deserve recognition.  Please click on the buttons above this paragraph for a sample of all of the suggestions.

However, mathematics extends over 2,500 years of written history.  To list only honorees since the invention of printing, or the establishment of national societies, is narrow in definition, but enormous in terms of execution.  In keeping with our mission statement, we have decided to select only mathematicians who have been sufficiently prominent to be honored by their communities.

We invite all readers of this message to send us photographs of streets, buildings, or monuments that honor mathematicians.  We hope to build an international collection for all to appreciate.

Click on the map icon and enlarge your screen to view a map of outstanding mathematicians.




There are wonderful stamps honoring mathematicians issued by many countries. Unfortunately, it would appear that the U.S. has never honored a mathematician.  However, in 2001
the U.S. honored Enrico Fermi.
Earlier physicists have been honored.
Please see http://jeff560.tripod.com/  for a sample collection.