# top 5 living mathematicians **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 4, 2013, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-5-living-mathematicians/651954 "2013-03-04T01:14:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![thanatic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/97f17d/32.png) [@thanatic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thanatic)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-5-living-mathematicians/651954/1 "2013-03-04T01:14:14Z")
who do you consider the top 5 living mathematicians? ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-5-living-mathematicians/651954/2 "2013-03-04T01:22:27Z")
I nominate Professor Calculus. Seriously, no-one who is not themselves a professional, working research mathematician would have a clue about this, and the judgements of such people are likely to be very much biased according to what their own sub-fields and views are. It is really only posterity, later generations, who can make remotely meaningful judgements about who were the greatest whatevers of some preceding era. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-5-living-mathematicians/651954/3 "2013-03-04T01:31:58Z")
Regardless who they are, it will be a matter of opinion rather than debate, so I am sending this off to IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-5-living-mathematicians/651954/4 "2013-03-04T01:50:45Z")
Here’s a list of [Field’s Medal](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fields_Medal) winners. The top living mathematicians would probably be somewhere on that list. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-5-living-mathematicians/651954/5 "2013-03-04T02:23:40Z")
I’ll name Roger Penrose…whom I don’t like a whole lot. But he is brilliant. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-5-living-mathematicians/651954/6 "2013-03-04T07:49:11Z")
No one can really say, not even a mathematician. (And I am a mathematician.) Here’s one person’s choices: > **[Who are the best living mathematicians?](https://www.quora.com/Who-are-the-best-living-mathematicians)** > > Answer (1 of 56): A list of great living mathematicians: > > 1) John Tate > 2) Pierre Deligne > 3) Endre Szemeredi > 4) Laszlo Lovasz > 5) Grigori Perelman > 6) Terence Tao > 7) Noga Alon > 8) John Milnor > 9) Jean-Pierre Serre > 10) Tim Gowers > 11) Curt McMullen > 12)... There are more choices here: [http://blog.tanyakhovanova.com/?p=218](http://blog.tanyakhovanova.com/?p=218) Here are the winners of the Abel Prize: > **[Abel Prize](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abel_Prize)** > > The Abel Prize (/ˈɑːbəl/ AH-bəl; Norwegian: Abelprisen \[ˈɑ̀ːbl̩ˌpriːsn̩\]) is awarded annually by the King of Norway to one or more outstanding mathematicians. It is named after the Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel (1802–1829) and directly modeled after the Nobel Prizes. It comes with a monetary award of 7.5 million Norwegian kroner (NOK; increased from 6 million NOK in 2019). > The Abel Prize's history dates back to 1899, when its establishment was proposed by the Norwegian mathematicia... And still more choices: [http://travels.aperiodical.com/2010/10/these-are-your-important-living.html](http://travels.aperiodical.com/2010/10/these-are-your-important-living.html) ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-5-living-mathematicians/651954/7 "2013-03-04T09:13:46Z")
That guy from the CBS series _Numb3rs_. Seriously, solving crimes with math and a hot girlfriend – how cool is that? ---
**Author:** ![kjckjc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e36b37/32.png) [@kjckjc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kjckjc)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-5-living-mathematicians/651954/8 "2013-03-04T12:36:57Z")
Danica McKellar. You didn’t really define what they had to be the “top 5” in. ---
**Author:** ![ads95](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5daacb/32.png) [@ads95](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ads95)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-5-living-mathematicians/651954/9 "2013-03-04T12:44:27Z")
I doubt I could name 5 mathematicians - in fact I’m sure I couldn’t without research. But I will nominate the one I can recall - Andrew Wiles. Proving Fermat’s last theorem was pretty big news about 20 years ago. I believe he was a year too old to win the Field’s medal, however. ---
**Author:** ![Razncain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9d8465/32.png) [@Razncain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Razncain)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-5-living-mathematicians/651954/10 "2013-03-04T12:51:28Z")
> [@ads95](#): > > I doubt I could name 5 mathematicians - in fact I’m sure I couldn’t without research. > > But I will nominate the one I can recall - Andrew Wiles. Proving Fermat’s last theorem was pretty big news about 20 years ago. I believe he was a year too old to win the Field’s medal, however. You beat me to it, but yeah, Andrew Wiles should surely be on that list. Watch the PBS special on him if you haven’t already. ---
**Author:** ![DragonAsh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/db5fbb/32.png) [@DragonAsh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DragonAsh)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-5-living-mathematicians/651954/11 "2013-03-04T13:30:02Z")
He’s on the list of Fields medalists even though he never accepted the reward, but [Grigory Perelman](http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/08/28/060828fa_fact2) would very much be near the top of my list. ---
**Author:** ![phungi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/phungi/32/395_2.png) [@phungi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phungi)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-5-living-mathematicians/651954/12 "2013-03-04T14:50:46Z")
I know very little about applied mathematics, but [Terence Tao](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terence_Tao) has to be on the list, if for no other reason than his [contact information page](http://www.math.ucla.edu/~tao/tags.html)… ---
**Author:** ![Itself](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/d07c76/32.png) [@Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Itself)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-5-living-mathematicians/651954/13 "2013-03-05T03:08:55Z")
It’s impossible to come to any conclusive list of the top 5 greatest living mathematicians, but here are some I’d definitely add: - Jean-Pierre Serre. He’s 86, so he’s not really active anymore, but he’s an extraordinarily prolific mathematician who completely revolutionized algebraic topology and algebraic geometry, while also making substantial contributions ot a wide variety of math fields. He won the Fields medal (at 27!), the Abel prize, and the Wolf prize; according to Wikipedia, only two other mathematicians have done so. - Alexander Grothendieck. He went crazy, unfortunately, but he pretty much invented modern algebraic geometry from scratch. All the categorial language and the setting of schemes are due to him. - William Thurston died less than a year ago (and only at age 65), but he was one of the most prolific mathematicians and pretty much invented and solved the area of 3-manifold topology, which mathematicians didn’t even realize was a separate subfield until his work. I’d add some subset of Ed Witten, Michael Aityah, John Milnor, Grigori Perelman, Terence Tao, Jacques Tits, etc. to the list, but I don’t know as much about their specific contributions outside of topology and algebraic geometry. It would actually be easier to list the top 5 mathematical developments in the 20th century rather than specific mathematicians. It’s a narrow field, and pretty much everyone at the highest level is contributing major work. The mathematicians above are also mainly in topology and geometry, because that’s my field; other mathematicians would probably have very different lists. But it’s not like compiling a list of the five greatest living baseball players, or even the five greatest athletes; if anything, it’s closer to naming authors or artists. Also, most of these mathematicians are quite old and no longer active; it’s easier to mark them as uncontroversially great because we’ve had time to see how their results have been so important (and, except for Grothendieck, to make sure they didn’t go crazy). ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-5-living-mathematicians/651954/14 "2013-03-05T07:53:21Z")
I hadn’t realized that Benoit Mandelbrot died in 2010. If the OP were posted 5 years ago, would he have been in the discussion? ---
**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-5-living-mathematicians/651954/15 "2013-03-05T13:04:08Z")
According to my husband: 1. Andrew Wiles 2. Scientific Advisory Board of the Clay Mathematics Institute 3. Barry Mazur ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-5-living-mathematicians/651954/16 "2013-03-05T13:06:11Z")
> [@Itself](#): > > . . . Jacques Tits . . . Ahhnd . . . the prize goes to the mathematician with the biggest tits! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Bones\_Daley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@Bones\_Daley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bones_Daley)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-5-living-mathematicians/651954/17 "2013-03-05T18:32:58Z")
If any of these guys mentioned were really good, they would have solved the Goldbach conjecture by now …I mean …how difficult can it be to prove it one way or the other … ??? ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-5-living-mathematicians/651954/18 "2013-03-05T18:59:37Z")
My favorite living mathematician is [László Lovász](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A1szl%C3%B3_Lov%C3%A1sz), who made groundbreaking contributions to the interrelated fields of graph theory and combinatorics back in the 1970s. (Hey, that hadn’t been so long ago when I started work towards my PhD in 1988!) Don’t know that he belongs in a Top 5 that’s not restricted to that area of math, though. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-5-living-mathematicians/651954/19 "2013-03-05T22:10:16Z")
> [@phungi](#): > > I know very little about applied mathematics, but [Terence Tao](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terence_Tao) has to be on the list, if for no other reason than his [contact information page](http://www.math.ucla.edu/~tao/tags.html)… What’s so great about it? Various contacts and warnings that he’s very busy, so don’t expect much. There is this: > [@](#): > > I will also be almost certainly unable to contribute to any project involving montages of contributions by N famous people, for some large integer N. which makes me want to write him and tell him that I’m creating a montage of contributions by Pi\*10 famous people and can he contribute? [Well, I could probably figure out a defendable real-world interpretation of the square root of two famous people or something, rather than an interpretation of 0.14159… famous people, but Pi is always funnier, right?] ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2013, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-5-living-mathematicians/651954/20 "2013-03-05T22:26:05Z")
I’m not a mathematician, but Tao probably has to be on the list. Ed Witten is pretty intelligent (from what I’ve heard) but is more a physicist. At that kind of level of academic ability, can people really even tell the difference? It reminds me of the scene in good will hunting where Will Hunting is talking to the professor who took him in, and the professor said only a handful of people in the world could tell the difference between the two of them despite Hunting being leaps and bounds above/beyond the professor. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-5-living-mathematicians/651954.md?page=2)