Henri Poincaré is one of the most famous French scientists of all time. During his life he managed to achieve a lot. In addition to making many discoveries in various fields of knowledge, he also taught for many years at the Sorbonne and was a member of the French Academy of Sciences, and from 1906 until his death in 1912 was its president.
In the modern world, his most famous achievement is the Poincaré theorem, which was proved by Grigory Perelman.
Proof attempts
Many scientists have been studying the theorem for many years, but only a few people have achieved success. One of the major breakthroughs was made by the American scientist Thurston. The essence of his work is that he was able to visually illustrate the diversity of elements of a three-dimensional plane. Thurston's work was called the geometrization conjecture, and for it he wasawarded the Fields Medal.
Several Chinese scientists were also interested in seeing Poincaré's theorem proved. Among them, Shin Tong Yau stands out, who even made claims that he and his students managed to do it.
Perelman's work
Grigory Perelman proved the Poincare theorem after many years of hard work on it. He began his research while in America, where he lectured for a long time at various universities. After his acquaintance with the American scientist Hamilton, who helped him clarify some points in string theory, he thought about proving the theorem. After some time, he decided to return to his native St. Petersburg, where he diligently set to work.
In 2002, Perelman published the first part of his work and sent a copy of it to Shin Tun Yau so that he could give her an objective assessment. Even then, the scientific world became aware that the Poincaré theorem had been proven. Within a few months, Perelman published two more parts of the article, which presented his work in a very concise manner.
It is accepted in the scientific world that before an official announcement is made about the discovery, it must be confirmed by several different scientists, and only then the work can be officially published. Before the proof was published, the Poincaré-Perelman theorem was tested many times, and this work was further complicated by the fact that it used a significant number of abbreviations and had little explanation of howfor such serious work.
Nevertheless, after some time it was recognized that Perelman managed to solve the problem that many generations of scientists struggled with.
Fields Prize
This award is given only once every four years to no more than four scientists who have made a significant contribution to the study of mathematics. Perelman was also awarded it in 2006 for proving the Poincare conjecture, but, oddly enough, he refused such an honorary award and was not present at the presentation. According to the scientist himself, honorary titles are not important for him, the fact that the hypothesis has been proven brought him pleasure.
Poincare's theorem was a mystery to many scientists, but it was the eccentric Russian mathematician who was able to solve it and find answers to questions that worried the entire scientific world for a long time.
