The Fields Medal is the most prestigious international award in mathematics, it is awarded every four years to four mathematicians no older than 40. Nobel Prize in this discipline does not exist.

One of the award winners this year was Kasher Birkar, an Iranian Kurd by birth. He fled to the UK during the Iraq-Iran war. Now 40-year-old Birkar is a professor at Cambridge University.

The award was given to Birkar for proving the limitations of Fano fiber bundles and his contribution to the study of the minimal models program.

The youngest laureate of this year is the 30-year-old German Peter Scholze from the University of Bonn. He became a professor at the age of 24, he is called one of the most influential mathematicians in the world. The scientist received a medal for his theory of perfectionoid spaces.

Another medal was received by the 36-year-old Akshay Venkatesh, who works in Princeton. Venkatesh is Australian, he is the second-born from this country, received the award. The mathematician grew up in Perth, at the age of 13 he was already studying at the University of Western Australia.

To win the medal he was allowed to study in the field of the theory of dynamics, which studies the equations of moving bodies for solving problems in number theory. The fourth winner is the 34-year-old Italian Alessio Figalli. He was awarded for his contribution to the theory of optimal transport.

Fields Medal is named after the president of the International Mathematical Congress, John Fields, who in 1924 proposed to create a reward for achievements in mathematics.