Gerd Faltings, a number theorist at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in Bonn, Germany, has won the 2026 Abel Prize, one of the most prestigious awards in mathematics, the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters announced on 19 March. Faltings was awarded the prize for work proving central results in the theory of algebraic equations linking whole numbers together1. The prize highlights Faltings's work in 1983 on the theory of Diophantine equations, which are equations involving sums and powers of unknown numbers for which the solutions have to be rational ' meaning they can be written as a fraction of two whole numbers, or integers. 'This made a big splash in the mathematics community,' says Helge Holden, a mathematician at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, who chairs the Abel Committee. Commenting on Faltings's 1986 award of a Fields Medal ' another of the greatest honours for a mathematician ' a colleague described his proof of Mordell's...
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