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A math genius won a £ 2.3 million award from the Mark Zuckerberg Foundation for solving the complex equations that result from stirring a cup of tea.
Martin Hairer, 44, of Imperial College London, took the jackpot as the winner of the 2021 Breakthrough Prize in mathematics.
The Austrian-British researcher, who lives in London with his mathematician wife Xue-Mei Li, had been working on stochastic analysis.
The field, based on the calculus of Japanese mathematician Kiyosi Ito, saw him delve into how random effects turn the mathematics of things like mixing tea into complex problems.
Professor Hairer is now looking to buy a house with his wife in London when the prize money goes to his account.
Martin Hairer (pictured 2014), 44, of Imperial College London, won the jackpot as the 2021 Breakthrough Prize winner in mathematics
The math genius won the £ 2.3 million prize from the Mark Zuckerberg Foundation for solving the complex equations that result from stirring a cup of tea (file photo)
An example of some of Professor Hairer’s mind-blowing equations is shown in the photo, as featured on his website.
The mathematician created a 180-page treatise on the idea of ”regularity structures,” which stunned rivals and saw one say that he must have obtained it from intelligent aliens.
The Briton got the results for the 2021 Breakthrough math prize, created by Zuckerberg and Israeli-Russian investor Yuri Milner, on Skype during the lockdown.
He said: ‘I was surprised but obviously very honored. I’m very happy if I can inspire some people to study math or even just understand a little better what math is about.
‘The math is the truth. Once you discover something in math, it applies to all eternity. ‘
The genius was born and raised in Geneva, Switzerland, where his advanced intellect was quickly discovered.
At a school science event, he created software that became Amadeus, known as ‘the Swiss Army Knife of sound editing’, which is widely used in the music industry.
Professor Hairer studied mathematics at the University of Geneva, where his father, Professor Ernst Hairer, is a mathematician, before pursuing a master’s and doctorate in physics.
But he turned to mathematics when he realized that work in theoretical physics can be quickly discarded and forgotten.
He said: ‘I really wouldn’t want to put my name on a result that could be replaced by something else three years later.
In math, if you get a result, that’s it. It’s the universality of mathematics, you discover absolute truths. ‘
Professor Hairer’s specialty is stochastic partial differential equations, which analyze how random acts turn normal things into chaos.
The Austrian-British researcher, who lives in London with his mathematician wife Xue-Mei Li (pictured), had been working on stochastic analysis
The photo shows another one of the complicated equations from the Austrian-British professor on his website.
This can be due to the movement of air in a wind tunnel or how a drop of water seeps through a fabric when it hits it.
But when the random act is very strong, solving the equation can become extremely difficult.
Explaining his research, Professor Hairer said: “I study a type of mathematics they call stochastic partial differential equations.
“They are the type of equations that arise when you try to study something that evolves in time but also depends on space.
For example, just like the wind in a wind tunnel, you want to model the air flow, so of course it depends on the time because it changes with time, but it also depends on the space: the air speed is different at different points of the wind tunnel.
So if you have a system like this that also evolves under the influence of randomness.
“So if there is randomness that comes into play, it is described by a stochastic partial differential equation.”
Professor Hairer’s creation of regularity structures, published in 2014, allowed the random act to be tamed and rethought, allowing him to solve the equations.
The mathematician, who speaks French, German, Austrian and English, won the Fields Medal in 2014, one of the highest honors in mathematics, and was knighted in 2016.
Professor Alice Gast, President of Imperial College London, said: “Martin Hairer’s advancements have deeply shaped our understanding of stochastic processes.
Maryam Mirzakhani, Martin Hairer and Manjul Bhargava are awarded the 2014 Fields Medal at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Seoul, South Korea.
“It has brought clarity to previously incomprehensible equations and random phenomena.
“His creativity and insightful knowledge have led to powerful advances in math, physics, computer science, and finance.
“Martin is an inspiring ambassador for Imperial, math and science – he’s a great Breakthrough Award winner.”
