http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/index.php?menuID=1&subID=692&WT.srch=1 Keep your million dollar prizes Genius Grigori Perelman shuns fame, lives with mum and is a fine example, says robert matthews He looks like someone who lives in a box begging from strangers. The truth is hardly less downbeat: unemployed Grigori Perelman (right) lives in penury with his mum in a St Petersburg flat. Yet Dr Perelman is the latest star to adorn the firmament of celebrity. At lunchtime today, it was announced that he had declined the Fields Medal, the 'Nobel Prize' of mathematics. Dr Perelman is a shoo-in for the $1m reward, awarded by the American financier and maths enthusiast Landon Clay, for solving a century-old problem known as the Poincare Conjecture. Will the champagne lifestyle go to Dr Perelman's not insubstantial head? Will he reveal top tips on topology to a wide-eyed reporter from Hello? Unlikely. Few expected him to turn up to today's award ceremony in Madrid. As for the $1m reward, he Dr Perelman today declined the Fields Medal, the ‘Nobel Prize’ of maths seems to find this as thrilling as the prospect of talking to the media. As he told one reporter: "I do not believe anything I say can be of the slightest public interest." It is a statement that reveals Dr Perelman to be that most elusive of people, a genuine celebrity with no interest in celebrity life. While luvvies, cooks and cokeheads line up to share their views on everything from Aids to Zimbabwe, Dr Perelman seeks only to be left in peace. While fat cat bosses of failing companies award themselves million-dollar bonuses, Dr Perelman is content with a hard job well done. He is not alone. Tim Berners Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, is one of many who chose to keep their brilliant lights under bushels. We should all celebrate the paradox that Dr Perelman's failure to appear today is glorious proof that such people still exist.
I read about that. Brilliant minds can sometimes be quite eccentric. You have to admire his standing on principal though.
