The 2018 prize, awarded to Canadian mathematician Robert Phelan Langlands (see Tangente 129 and Tangente 149), is no exception. He received the prize "for his visionary program connecting representation theory to number theory"; many wonder why it took so long for the award to come his way.
The "Langlands program" is a vast conjectural edifice whose unity, beauty and coherence have won over hundreds of mathematicians: little by little, theorem by theorem, they are lifting the veil and revealing the deep unity of mathematics that lies at the heart of the program. But what does the man himself think? At his lecture in Oslo, Norway, on 23 May, he was emphatic\: "The Langlands program bears my name. In its present form, do some aspects of it have my approval? The answer is no!"* For decades, Robert Langlands has championed a vision even more ambitious than the one his colleagues are pursuing. At 81, he has just made available a lengthy paper (in Russian!) setting out his theory in greater detail. Plenty more work for mathematicians, then—and much delight for decades to come!
\* See www.abelprize.no/artikkel/vis.html?tid=73149, in English.
