U.S. mathematician Karen Uhlenbeck wins the Abel Prize for 2019 "for her pioneering achievements in geometric partial differential equations, gauge theory and integrable systems," the Norwegian Academy of Sciences and Letters said Tuesday.
Uhlenbeck, a 76-year-old professor of the University of Texas at Austin, is the first woman to win the Abel Prize, which has been awarded annually since 2003 to one or more outstanding mathematicians in memory of the Norwegian mathematics genius Niels Henrik Abel.
Uhlenbeck is a founder of modern geometric analysis, said the citation by the Abel Committee. "Her perspective has permeated the field and led to some of the most dramatic advances in mathematics in the last 40 years."
She will receive the financial award of 6 million Norwegian kroner (704,000 U.S. dollars) from Norway's King Harald V at an award ceremony in Oslo on May 21.
Uhlenbeck was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the United States, in August 1942. she received her B.A. from the University of Michigan in 1964 and later earned a M.A. (1966) and Ph.D. (1968) from Brandeis University.
