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Grothendieck Quest

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The letters page of Le Monde contained a copy of the letter that had been sent by Alexandre Grothendieck, one of the world's great mathematicians, to the Swedish Academy of Science. This letter (A translation is given below) enumerates his reasons for refusing the highly prestigious Crafoord Prize in mathematics. The Crafoord Prize had recently been established by the Swedish Academy to honor achievements in mathematics, astronomy, the geosciences and biology (with an emphasis on the cure of polyarthritis). The first 3 fields were not included in Alfred Nobel's will. An apocryphal story has it that Nobel held a grudge against mathematicians because his wife was having an affair with the mathematician Mittag-Loeffler. Another theory is that Nobel believed that mathematics was a science with few practical applications. Between 1950 and 1970 Alexandre Grothendieck had produced a deluge of brilliant work in Algebraic Geometry and related disciplines. His reputation for mathematical genius

Grothendieck Quest Visiting Alexandre Grothendieck June 1988 Roy Lisker In May of 1988 I was living in Neunen, Holland, as the guest of a friend, electrical engineer and particle physicist, Dolf van Rede. On the morning of May 5th I boarded a train in Eindhoven that would take me to Brussels, from which I could continue on to Paris. Waiting in the Brussels station for the train to Paris to arrive, I bought that day's copy of Le Monde. Little did I realize how significantly a single item would affect my stay in Europe that year, and for many years to come. The letters page of Le Monde contain

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