Abel Prize 2012 in Tromsø

Mike Naylor and Endre Szemerédi

The Abel Prize was awarded on Wednesday in Oslo to Hungarian Endre Szemerédi. The Abel Prize is the equivalent of the Nobel Prize, created because there is no Nobel Prize for mathematics. The day afterwards, the winner visits one of the universities in Norway for a day of lectures and special events. This year the university was in Tromsø, far north inside the arctic circle.

I was invited to be the guest speaker in conjunction with this event. I presented a 30 minute math entertainment show for a crowd of excited 6th graders to open for the star of the day who talked with the children and later gave a public lecture of his own (at a somewhat higher level than mine!) It was quite an honor, and quite a lot of good fun as well! I met Endre and his wife and a host of officials including the mayor of Tromsø, the chancellor of education, and the president of the Norwegian Royal Science Academy. After lunch and the lectures, we visited the Polar Museum and then met for dinner and drinks later.

It was a very special day, in a very beautiful and enchanting city.