Every year since 2003 , the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters hasbestowedthe Abel Prize for excellence and contributions in the orbit of mathematics . Every year , the receiver has been a man . In 2019 , Karen Uhlenbeck squeeze that dubious tradition and became thefirst womanto win the Abel Prize and its $ 700,000 award .
An emeritus professor at the University of Texas at Austin , Uhlenbeck ’s employment is center on calibre possibility and geometric analysis — the latter a field she pioneered . Gauge possibility endorse theoretical physics and is involved in the enquiry of molecule cathartic and string theory . Uhlenbeck is also credit with study that run to greater comprehension of the conjugation of forces , a primary target in natural philosophy thatattemptsto link electromagnetic strength and weak atomic force with strong nuclear violence in a single theory , which would help us read the universe .
Uhlenbeck arrive at UT Austin in 1987 and stayed after her retirement in 2014 . During that metre , she co - founded several program , includingthe Saturday Morning Math Group and Distinguished Women in Mathematics lecture series , both in Texas , as well as the Park City Mathematics Institute and the Woman and Mathematics program at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton , New Jersey .
She achieve another milestone in her field in 1990 , when she became the 2nd woman ( and the first since 1932 ) to host a plenary speech at the International Congress of Mathematicians .
The Abel Prize , which is simulate after the Nobel Prize , is named after Norwegian mathematician Niels Hendrik Abel . Uhlenbeck will receive the prize in Oslo on May 21 .
[ h / tNew Scientist ]
