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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Science
Nicola Davis and Naaman Zhou

Former refugee among winners of Fields medal – the 'Nobel prize for maths'

Fields medals 2018 winners (from L to R): Caucher Birkar, Alessio Figalli, Akshay Venkatesh, Peter Scholze.
Fields medals 2018 winners (from L to R): Caucher Birkar, Alessio Figalli, Akshay Venkatesh, Peter Scholze. Photograph: Handout

A Kurdish man who came to Britain as a refugee after fleeing conflict two decades ago is one of four men who have been awarded the Fields medal, considered the equivalent of a Nobel prize for mathematics.

The winners of the prize, presented at the International Congress of the International Mathematical Union in Rio de Janeiro, have been announced as Prof Caucher Birkar, 40, from Cambridge University, Prof Akshay Venkatesh, 36, an Australian based at Princeton and Stanford in the US, Prof Alessio Figalli, 34, from ETH in Zurich and Prof Peter Scholze, 30, from Bonn University.

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