- The Millennium Mathematics Project (MMP) was set up within the University of Cambridge in 1999 as a joint project between the Faculties of Mathematics and Education. The MMP aims to support maths education for pupils of all abilities from ages 5 to 19 and promote the development of mathematical skills and understanding, particularly through enrichment and extension activities beyond the school curriculum, and to enhance the mathematical understanding of the general public. The project is currently directed by John Barrow.

The MMP includes complementary programs:

- The NRICH website publishes free mathematics education enrichment material for ages 5 to 19. NRICH material focuses on problem-solving, building core mathematical reasoning and strategic thinking skills. In the academic year 2004/5 the website attracted over 1.7 million site visits (more than 49 million hits).

- Plus Magazine is a free online maths magazine for age 15+ and the general public. In 2004/5 Plus attracted over 1.3 million site visits (more than 31 million hits). The site won the Webby award in 2001 for the best Science site on the Internet.

- The Motivate video-conferencing projectlinks university mathematicians and scientists to primary and secondary schools in areas of the UK from Jersey and Belfast to Glasgow and inner-city London, with international links to Pakistan, South Africa, India and Singapore.

- Thesaurus.maths.org is a thesaurus of school and undergraduate mathematics.

V. Compare the major awards in Mathematics with the Nobel Prize by using like (similar to) or unlike (different from) in the sentences.

1. ____ the Nobel Prize the Fields Medal comes with the monetary award.

2. ____ the Nobel Prize the Fields Medal has an age limit.

3. The Abel Prize has a large monetary prize ____ a Nobel one.

4. ____ the Noble Prize the Abel Prize recognizes lifetime achievements of scientists.

5. ____ the Fields Medal each Wolf Prize consists of a diploma and US$100,000

VI. Search for more information on the following topics on the Internet and share it with other students.

1. One of the famous awards in Mathematics is … (Schock Prize, Nevanlinna Prize, Nemmers Prize …).

2. The great laureate (see the tables below).

3. The outstanding mathematician(s) of Ukraine.

Abel Prize Laureates

Year	Laureate(s)	Nationality	Citation
	Jean-Pierre Serre	France	‘for playing a key role in shaping the modern form of many parts of mathematics, including topology, algebraic geometry and number theory‘
	Michael F. Atiyah Isadore M. Singer	United Kingdom Lebanon United States	‘for their discovery and proof of the index theorem, bringing together topology, geometry and analysis, and their outstanding role in building new bridges between mathematics and theoretical physics‘
	Peter D. Lax	Hungary / United States	‘for his groundbreaking contributions to the theory and application of partial differential equations and to the computation of their solutions’
	Lennart Carleson	Sweden	‘for his profound and seminal contributions to harmonic analysis and the theory of smooth dynamical systems‘
	S. R. Srinivasa Varadhan	India / United States	‘for his fundamental contributions to probability theory and in particular for creating a unified theory of large deviation‘
	John G. Thompson Jacques Tits	United States; Belgium / France	‘for their profound achievements in algebra and in particular for shaping modern group theory‘
	Mikhail Gromov	Russia / France	‘for his revolutionary contributions to geometry’
	John Tate	United States	‘for his vast and lasting impact on the theory of numbers‘

Text 8

Reading and Speaking

FIELDS MEDALIST

Vladimir Gershonovich Drinfel’d was born on the 14^th of February in 1954. His home town was Kharkov. In 1969, at the age of 15, Vladimir Drinfel’d represented the Soviet Union at the International Mathematics Olympiad in Bucharest, Romania (the first IMO), and won a gold medal with the full score of 40 points. The same year he entered Moscow State University and graduated from it in 1974. Then at the age of twenty, Drinfel’d announced a proof of the Langland’s conjectures. In the course of proving the conjectures, Drinfel’d introduced a new class of objects which he called Elliptic modules. Since that time these modules have also become known as shtukas and Drinfel’d modules. In 1978 Drinfel’d was awarded the Candidate of Sciences degree. He became a researcher at the Institute of Physics of Low Temperatures of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in Kharkiv. In 1983 Drinfel’d published a short article that expanded the scope of the Langland’s conjectures. His work related algebraic geometry over finite fields with number theory, especially the theory of automorphic forms, through the notions of elliptic module and the theory of the geometric Langland’s correspondence. Later in collaboration with his advisor Yuri Manin, he achieved a new result which was independently proved by Michael Atiyah and Nigel Hitchin. In 1986 at the International Congress of Mathematicians he coined the term ‘Quantum group‘ in reference to Hopf algebra and connected it to the study of the Yang–Baxter equation, which was a necessary condition for the solvability of statistical mechanical models. He also generalized Hopf algebra to quasi-Hopf algebra, and introduced the study of ‘Drinfel’d twists‘, which can be used to factorize the R-matrix corresponding to the solution of the Yang–Baxter equation associated with a quasi-triangular Hopf algebra. He introduced the notion of a quantum group (independently discovered by Michio Jimbo at the same time). In 1988 he was awarded Doctor of Sciences degree from the Steklov Mathematical Institute.

Later Drinfel’d moved to mathematical physics. He made important contributions into mathematical physics, including algebraic formalism of the Quantum Inverse Scattering Method. In 1990 he was awarded the Fields Medal. In 1992 Drinfel’d was elected a corresponding member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

Currently, Drinfel’d is the Harry Pratt Judson Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago.

Drinfel’d has also collaborated with Alexander Beilinson to rebuild the theory of vertex algebras which has become increasingly important to conformal field theory, string theory and the geometric Langland’s program. His new work dealing with algebra appeared in a book form in 2004.

I. Match the words (1–7) with their definitions/explanations (a–g):

II. Decide if the given statement is true (T) according to the text, if it is false (F) or if the information is not given (NG)in the text (Work in pairs).

1. Vladimir Drinfel’d was a representative of Ukraine at the first International Mathematics Olympiad.

2. In 1974 Drinfel’d gave birth to Drinfel’d modules.

3. Firstly he was interested in algebraic geometry, but later he worked in the field of mathematical physics.

4. He was the first to discover a quantum group in collaboration with Michio Jimbo.

5. The introduction of Drinfel’d twists made it possible to factorize the R-matrix.

6. He was awarded Fields Medal due to his great contributions into mathematical physics.

7. He is known to be elected an honorable member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

8. At present he delivers lectures at some universities in Canada.

9. In order to rebuild the theory of vertex algebras Drinfel’d began working with Alexander Beilinson.

10. Finally, in 2004 his new work was published.