St Petersburg University students become first recipients of an award for young mathematicians in Russia
Students from St Petersburg University have won the award for young mathematicians and have taken the entire podium in the Student category. The award ceremony took place at the Conference of World-class International Mathematical Centres held at the Sirius University of Science and Technology.
The winners in the student category were three master's students from St Petersburg University
– Yaroslav Alekseev, author of ‘A Lower Bound for Polynomial Calculus with Extension Rule’; Ivan Bochkov (‘On zeros and poles of Helson zeta functions’); and Aleksei Kulikov (‘Fourier interpolation and time-frequency localisation’). Aleksei Kulikov was awarded the Medal of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Mathematics this year for his research in harmonic analysis.
The prize for young mathematicians was established by the Sirius Educational Centre and is awarded for a cycle of scientific work in mathematics in three categories: Young Scientists (up to and including 35 years old), Postgraduate Students and Students. A total of 58 young mathematicians from all over Russia – 19 students, 17 postgraduates and 22 scientists – were nominated for it. Also, among the finalists were: Danila Cherkashin, a research associate at the Chebyshev Laboratory at St Petersburg University; and Viacheslav Borovitskiy, a postgraduate student at St Petersburg University. Candidates for the prize with short descriptions of their work and recommendations by well-known scientists were nominated by members of the mathematical community. Then an international jury headed by Fields medallist Andrei Okounkov selected the country's strongest mathematicians.
The International Congress of Mathematicians is the most important meeting in basic and applied mathematics and one of the oldest scientific congresses. The aim of the congress is to present as wide a spectrum of advanced mathematics as possible, including all scientific fields and mathematical schools from different geographical regions, and thus determine the future direction of the development of mathematics. The guest speakers are mathematicians of the highest calibre, capable of presenting current research trends to a wide audience.
‘The fact that all three students of the University have become laureates of the new prize for young mathematicians is a quite natural result’, said Yurii Belov, Professor at St Petersburg University. ‘These are graduates of the bachelor’s programme in Mathematics, established in 2015. Talented applicants have come to us and continued their studies in the master's programme ‘Advanced Mathematics’. After six years we can see that their training has been successful. I should point out that St Petersburg University has always had a strong mathematical scientific school.’
All finalists were invited to give a presentation at the Conference of World-class International Mathematical Centres and also received a grant to attend the International Congress of Mathematicians to be held in St Petersburg in 2022.