Luis Caffarelli, Copyright holder:
Nolan Zunk/ University of Texas at Austin
The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters has decided to award the Abel Prize for 2023 to Luis A. Caffarelli of the University of Texas at Austin, USA for his “seminal contributions to regularity theory for nonlinear partial differential equations including free-boundary problems and the Monge–Ampère equation”.
Few other living mathematicians have contributed more to our understanding of partial differential equations than the Argentinian–American Luis Caffarelli. He has introduced ingenious new techniques, shown brilliant geometric insight, and produced many seminal results. Over a period of more than 40 years, he has made groundbreaking contributions to regularity theory. Regularity – or smoothness – of solutions is essential in numerical computations, and absence of regularity is a measure of how wildly nature can behave.
“Caffarelli’s theorems have radically changed our understanding of classes of nonlinear partial differential equations with wide applications. The results are technically virtuous, covering many different areas of mathematics and its applications,” says chair of the Abel Committee Helge Holden.
Caffarelli is an exceptionally prolific mathematician, with more than 130 collaborators and more than 30 PhD students over a period of 50 years.
“Combining brilliant geometric insight with ingenious analytical tools and methods he has had and continues to have an enormous impact on the field,” says Helge Holden.
Luis A. Caffarelli has won numerous awards, among them the Leroy P. Steele Prize for Lifetime Achievement in Mathematics, the Wolf Prize and the Shaw Prize.
The presentation of the Abel Prize to Luis Caffarelli will take place at a formal ceremony to be held on 23 May 2023 in Oslo, Norway.
