ETH professor wins most prestigious mathematics award

Alessio Figalli was awarded the Fields Medal at this year’s International Congress of Mathematicians in Rio de Janeiro, announced the ETH in a statement. The most prestigious mathematics award, the medal is to the field what the Nobel Prize is to natural sciences.  

The 34-year-old Italian received the award for his “contributions to the theory of optimal transport and its applications in partial differential equations, metric geometry, and probability”, according to the statement. Among his work, he solved a problem dating back over 20 years involving the so-called Monge-Ampère equation – a partial differential equation from the 19th century that is applied in areas including urban planning, imaging and meteorology.  

After completing his doctorate in 2007, Figalli was appointed Associate Professor at the University of Texas in Austin at the age of 25 and promoted to Full Professor at 27. He joined the ETH as a Professor around two years ago.  

“It fills me with pride that a researcher at ETH Zurich has been awarded one of the highest honours in academia. I have come to know Alessio Figalli as an extremely creative mathematician and an open, communicative person,” commented ETH President Lino Guzzella.

“I am convinced that he is a major asset to our teaching and research at ETH Zurich and for Switzerland as a research centre. He can also make an impact as an ambassador for mathematics.”