Michel Talagrand has won the 2024 Abel prize for his work on probability theory and describing randomness.
Key points
- Abel prize is sometimes called the Nobel prize of mathematics.
- Talagrand, based at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), has spent a large part of his four-decade career characterising the extremes of random, or stochastic, systems.
- These problems are common in the real world – for example, bridge builders might need to know the maximum wind strength to expect from the local weather.
- Talagrand also developed mathematical tools and equations for systems that, while random, display some predictability in their randomness, a statistical principle called concentration of measures.
- The Abel prize is presented by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.
- The award, which comes with a prize of 7.5m Norwegian kroner (about £600,000), recognises lifetime achievement in mathematics and is often described as the equivalent of the Nobel prize, which has no maths category.
