It is very interesting to watch the intelligentsia and artists receiving titles and prizes especially from the president with honor. They are thanking the head of the state for his attention to the work they have done. It is clear that drinking a glass of champagne with the head of the state in front of cameras gives them a green light for their future. The feeling people have when getting these prizes are not like the feeling that if you are accepting this prize, you are putting limits on your freedom. Otherwise Silva Kaputikyan would not return her prize to the former president Robert Kocharyan to get back the right of criticizing.
In almost all post-soviet countries intelligentsia representatives like to be noticed by their governments. Such people are very strange and as a rule for people their actions and behavior are funny and interesting. These people are genius. Recently there was a conference on mathematics in Paris, and the hero of the day, Russian mathematician Grigori Perelman, who had to get the “prize of the age”, did not show up at the event. Everyone knows that this mathematician solved the hypothesis of Puanker in 2002 and for doing this he was awarded one million dollar. On March 12 they announced about this award. Experts examined and saw that the problem had been solved, thus they decided to give this prize. Media outlets wrote that in answer to journalists’ questions Pelerman said from behind the door that he does not care about such prizes, these things don’t decide anything and he does not need anything. In a word, he refused this award. I found out from Wikipedia that in 1996 this man was awarded the prize of the mathematicians’ community of Europe but he refused to accept this prize too. For solving this problem he has been awarded with a “Medal of Filds”, which is a great occasion for mathematicians. The award takes place once fur years, but Pelerman refused to accept it either.
The rule of nomination for this prize is the following: the Klay institute is announcing the competition and announces seven problems which cannot be solved and if you invent a solution, you have to send it to their editorial office. They are discussing the solution and putting it aside for two years, and if no one develops any contra-arguments to your solution within these two years, you can go and get your million. Pelerman even did not send this solution to the magazine but hosted it in the Internet.
We talked to professor Bagrat Batikyan, director of the mathematics institute of the RA Academy of Sciences, and asked him whether our mathematicians work on these problems to offer solutions.
-Yes, ur mathematicians are working too but we don’t have success in this direction yet. These are not only problems but scientific directions, the solutions of which are very hard and take a lot of time.
-What do you think about Pelerman’s decision to refuse this prize and not to take the million? The problem is that he has such a high level of consciousness that he did not want to prove to someone, but the perception of his decision is like the most important thing for him is the result but not the fame stemming out from this result.
-For all the mathematicians the first thing is the result and the rest of how they will accept this or the other award is a matter of character. This boy looks sick in spite of being a talented mathematician. But you should know that in the international history of math there hasn’t ever been anything like this. There are also mathematicians that don’t refuse awards and prizes. Nevertheless, Perelman is strange as he has decided not to do math any more. And this is a strange step anyway.
-Perhaps it is strange for specialists but it’s extremely interesting for being unprecedented. Don’t you think that the scientists and artist signify the state awards and prizes very much, which shouldn’t lure the serious specialists very much?
-The people, who are occupied by theoretic math, are not dependent on anything. We only need our wages and that’s all. This sector doesn’t need equipment, monetary investments. Only paper and pen is enough.
P.S. The British “The Daily Telegraph” has publicized the list of talents (31.01.2007). The total number is 100. There is only one Armenian in that list – chess player Gari Kasparov. He occupies the 25th place in this list. By the way, Grigori Pelerman is also included in this list (9th place). For us, Armenians, the most famous people are George Soros, Nelson Mandela, Dalai Lama, Bobby Fischer, Prince (American musician), Steve Wonder, Plasido Domingo, Aretha Franklin, Mikhail Kalashnikov and Quentin Tarantino.