作者：梅进（编译）
英国剑桥大学著名的古老数学奖项——亚当斯奖（Adams Prize）2011年获奖名单揭晓，英国布里斯托尔大学的Harald Helfgott和剑桥大学的Tom Sanders分享该奖。今年的奖项主题是“离散数学或数论”，奖金约为1.4万英镑。

亚当斯奖以著名数学家John Couch Adams的名字命名，为纪念他发现海王星，于1848年由剑桥大学圣?约翰学院成员捐资成立。每年由剑桥大学数学系和圣?约翰学院联合授奖。获奖者必须为在英国从事科研者，年龄一般为40岁以内。


剑桥大学网站相关报道（英文）

2011 Adams Prize winner announced
24 February 2011


The University of Cambridge has announced the winner of one of its oldest and most prestigious prizes, the Adams Prize.The Adams Prize is awarded jointly each year by the Faculty of Mathematics and St John's College to a young (normally under 40 years of age), UK-based researcher doing first class international research in mathematical sciences.

This year's topic was "Discrete Mathematics or Number Theory", and the Prize has been awarded jointly to Professor Harald Helfgott of the University of Bristol and Dr Tom Sanders of the University of Cambridge.

Professor Arieh Iserles, Chairman of the Adams Prize Adjudicators, said: "The work of both this year's winners has transformed our understanding of important topics in analytic number theory. They have each introduced new methodologies and techniques in applying deep tools from analysis in number theory; their results have already fostered much new research of world's leading mathematicians.

"Harald Helfgott's work is a major breakthrough in understanding expanders in general groups, a major problem in additive combinatorics. Tom Sanders employed deep harmonic analysis to understand arithmetic progressions and answering long-standing conjectures in number theory.

"This is the place to pay tribute to a large number of very strong candidates in discrete mathematics and number theory, whom we have been considering this year. The sheer breadth and strength of this year's entries attests to the impressive standards of this subject in the United Kingdom, in particular among young and up-and-coming mathematicians."

The Adams Prize is named after the mathematician John Couch Adams and was endowed by members of St John's College. It is currently worth approximately ￡14,000. It commemorates Adams's discovery of the planet Neptune, through calculation of the discrepancies in the orbit of Uranus.

Previous winners have included many well known mathematicians including James Clerk Maxwell and Sir William Hodge.