Warm welcome for Varadhan in Oslo

The Norwegian King and Queen, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Education and Research will all take part in the celebration of the Abel Laureate Srinivasa S. R. Varadhan. His Majesty King Harald will present the Abel Prize for 2007 to Varadhan at an award ceremony at the University Aula in Oslo 22 May at 2 pm. Earlier that day he will be received in audience at the Royal Palace, and in the evening Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg will host a banquet at Akershus Castle in honour of the Abel Laureate. King Harald, Queen Sonja and Øystein Djupedal, the Minister of Education and Research will be among the many prominent guests.

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Årets Abelprisvinner Srinivasa S. R. Varadhan ble tatt godt imot av Karen Nossum Bie, avdelingsdirektør i Kunnskapsdepartementet og Videnskapsakademiets generalsekretær Reidun Sirevåg. (Foto. Stian Lysberg Solum/Scanpix)
Srinivasa Varadhan was met by Karen Nossum Bie from the Ministry of Education and Research and Reidun Sirevåg from the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. (Photo: Stian Lysberg Solum/Scanpix)

The Abel banners flanked Karl Johan’s street all the way up to the Royal Palace when Srinivasa S. R. Varadhan arrived in Oslo 19 May for the Abel celebrations. And the Abel Laureate will be very busy for the five days he will stay in Oslo. On Sunday 20 May he will talk to young people at the Science Café about “To expect the unexpected”.

On Monday 21st of May Srinivasa Varadhan will be a guest of honour at Oslo Cathedral School, Niels Henrik Abel’s school. Here he will present the Holmboe Prize - named after Abel’s teacher - to a mathematics teacher who has distinguished himself. During this event Varadhan will also meet young students from Norway and Germany who have won mathematics contests. In the evening the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters will host a dinner in honour of the Srinivasa S. R. Varadhan. Abel Laureates Peter D. Lax (2005) and Lennart Carleson (2006) will be among the guests.

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Srinivasa Varadhan on Karl Johan street in Oslo. (Photo: Stian Lysberg Solum)
Srinivasa Varadhan on Karl Johan street in Oslo. (Photo: Stian Lysberg Solum)

 On Tuesday 22nd of May it is time for the award ceremony in the University Aula and the banquet at Akershus Castle.

 On Wednesday 23rd of May Srinivasa S. R. Varadhan will give his Abel Lecture at the University of Oslo. Three invited speakers will also give lectures.

Varadhan in Trondheim 

On Thursday 24th of  May Srinivasa S. R. Varadhan will travel to Trondheim where he will give a lecture at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). He will also visit a math circus in the town centre where hundreds of children are expected to participate.

 The fifth Abel Prize

The Abel Prize, awarded by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters for outstanding scientific work in the field of mathematics, carries a cash award of NOK 6,000,000, or close to 1 mill. USD.

The Abel Prize is this year awarded for the fifth time. The first Abel Prize was awarded in 2003 to Jean-Pierre Serre, Collège de France. In 2004 the Abel Prize was shared between Sir Michael Atiyah, University of Edinburgh and Isadore Singer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Peter D. Lax, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University, was the 2005 Abel Laureate. Lennart Carleson, Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden was awarded the Abel Prize in 2006.