Chern Medal


The Chern Medal is an international award recognizing outstanding lifelong achievement of the highest level in the field of mathematics. The prize is given at the International Congress of Mathematicians, which is held every four years.

Introduction

It is named in honor of the late Chinese mathematician Shiing-Shen Chern. The award is a joint effort of the International Mathematical Union and the Chern Medal Foundation to be bestowed in the same fashion as the IMU's other three awards, i.e. at the opening ceremony of the International Congress of Mathematicians, which is held every four years. The first such occasion was at the 2010 ICM in Hyderabad, India.
Each recipient receives a medal decorated with Chern's likeness, a cash prize of $250,000, and the opportunity to direct $250,000 of charitable donations to one or more organizations for the purpose of supporting research, education, or outreach in mathematics.

Laureates

Award yearWinnerReasons
2010Louis Nirenberg"For his role in the formulation of the modern theory of non-linear elliptic partial differential equations and for mentoring numerous students and post-docs in this area".
2014Phillip Griffiths"For his groundbreaking and transformative development of transcendental methods in complex geometry, particularly his seminal work in Hodge theory and periods of algebraic varieties"
2018Masaki Kashiwara"For his outstanding and foundational contributions to algebraic analysis and representation theory sustained over a period of almost 50 years."