Math Research Prizes

Sergei Gukov, a 24-year-old postdoc studying string theory, just won his salary for the next five years. Gukov is one of four prize fellows named this year by the Clay Math Institute—a three-year-old private foundation in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that is perhaps best known for its ongoing offer of $1 million to the first person to solve any of seven historically troubling math problems. Through the fellowships, first offered last year, the institute sponsors scientists for up to five years of research at any location. So far, one winner a year has worked in physics. “Most postdocs have to teach,” says Gukov, who will instead focus on research at Harvard University. The winners, who must be under the age of 30, need to have already achieved significant research results, says Arthur Jaffe, the institute’s president. “We first and foremost want to encourage the most original researchers.”