News Release

Wiles Receives AMS Cole Prize in Number Theory

January 9, 1997

For more information, please contact: Allyn Jackson, telephone 401-455-4109; fax 401-331-3842; e-mail axj@ams.org.

Providence, RI---Andrew J. Wiles, Eugene Higgins Professor of Mathematics at Princeton University, has received the Frank Nelson Cole Prize in Number Theory. The prize selection committee cited Professor Wiles's paper, "Modular elliptic curves and Fermat's Last Theorem" (Annals of Mathematics (2) 141 (1995) 443-551).

Professor Wiles caused a worldwide sensation in 1994 when he announced that he had proved Fermat's Last Theorem. The proof is contained in the paper cited above and a joint paper with Richard Taylor, "Ring-theoretic properties of certain Hecke algebras," (Annals of Mathematics (2) 141 (1995) 553-572).

Since proving Fermat's Last Theorem, Professor Wiles has received many prizes, including the Fermat Prize, the Ostrowski Prize, the Schock Prize, the Wolf Prize, and the National Academy of Sciences Prize in Mathematics. Born in Cambridge, England in 1953, Professor Wiles received his Ph.D. from Cambridge University in 1980. He took a professorship at Princeton in 1982. He was elected to the Royal Society, London, in 1989 and this year was elected to the National Academy of Sciences of the U.S.

Founded in 1888 to further mathematical research and scholarship, the 30,000-member AMS fulfills its mission through programs and services that promote mathematical research and its uses, strengthen mathematical education, and foster awareness and appreciation of mathematics and its connections to other disciplines and everyday life.