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Interviews with the Abel Prize laureates 2003–2016. (English) Zbl 1380.01011

Zürich: European Mathematical Society (EMS) (ISBN 978-3-03719-177-4/pbk; 978-3-03719-677-9/ebook). xiii, 287 p. (2017).
This is a collection of interviews with the Abel Prize laureates from 2003 until 2016 by the editors of this book. Since the first Abel Prize had been awarded to Jean-Pierre Serre in 2003, these interviews have been published in the Notices of the AMS and the EMS Newsletter; moreover, some parts have been broadcasted on Norwegian television. In the introduction of this interesting collection, it is explained how the Abel Prize had been established in 2002 at the bicentennial of Nils Henrik Abel’s birth by the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research and how the interviewers entered the stage.
In the 16 interviews in this collection, one can learn interesting details about life and work of eminent mathematicians such as Endre Szemerédi, “the by far the most sports interested person […] in these Abel interviews!” (according to the editors) and Andrew Wiles, where the interviewers comment “After you finished your proof of Fermat’s Last Theorem you had to undergo a deluge of interviews, which makes our task difficult. How on earth are we to come up with questions that you have not answered several times before? Well we will try to do our best.” And, indeed, the editors do an extremely good job in their interviews. Probably, the most valuable answers of the laureates concern questions on the development of this or that branch of mathematics. In that sense, the collection provides personal mosaic pieces for a history of modern mathematics.
The interview with John Nash is the last before his death in a car accident while returning from the award ceremony.
The collection closes with a worth reading biography of Niels Henrik Abel in the form of an imaginary interview.

MSC:

01-06 Proceedings, conferences, collections, etc. pertaining to history and biography
01A60 History of mathematics in the 20th century
01A61 History of mathematics in the 21st century
01A70 Biographies, obituaries, personalia, bibliographies
01A80 Sociology (and profession) of mathematics
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