Why is there no Nobel prize for mathematics?

dj168

Many reasons, one is Alfred Nobel, the founder of Nobel Prizes, proposed to this girl who rejected him and she was a mathematician. Another reason is he didn't care about math. http://nobelprizes.com/nobel/why_no_math.html There are more credible reasons as to why there is no Nobel prize in math. Chiefly among them is simply the fact he didn't care much for mathematics, and that it was not considered a practical science from which humanity could benefit (a chief purpose for creating the Nobel Foundation). Further, at the time there existed already a well known Scandinavian prize for mathematicians. If Nobel knew about this prize he may have felt less compelled to add a competing prize for mathematicians in his will. [Added text from the reference link - McG] Apr 12 08, 7:28 PM

star_gazer

The "rejection by a woman" theory is an urban legend. http://www.snopes.com/science/nobel.asp Apr 12 08, 9:46 PM

HeavensArrow

Although there is no Nobel Prize in Mathematics, leading to considerable speculation about why Alfred Nobel omitted it, some mathematicians have won the Nobel Prize in other fields: Bertrand Russell for literature (1950); Max Born and Walther Bothe for physics (1954); Andrew Fire for physiology or medicine (2006). Other mathematicians have won the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel: Kenneth Arrow (1972), Leonid Kantorovich (1975), John Forbes Nash (1994), Clive W. J. Granger (2003), Robert J. Aumann and Thomas C. Schelling (2005), and Roger Myerson (2007). Several prizes in mathematics have some similarities to the Nobel Prize. The Fields Medal is often described as the "Nobel Prize of mathematics", but it differs in being awarded only once every four years to people younger than forty years old. Other prestigious prizes in mathematics are the Crafoord Prize, awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences since 1982; the Abel Prize, awarded by the Norwegian government beginning in 2001; the Shaw Prize in mathematical sciences awarded since 2004; and the Gauss Prize, granted jointly by the International Mathematical Union and the German Mathematical Society for "outstanding mathematical contributions that have found significant applications outside of mathematics," and introduced at the International Congress of Mathematicians in 2006. The Clay Mathematics Institute has devised seven "Millennium Problems," whose solution results in a significant cash award: since it has a clear, predetermined objective for its award and since it can be awarded whenever a problem is solved, this prize also differs from the Nobel Prizes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Prize Apr 12 08, 10:30 PM

MonkeyOnALeash

Just to ponder...Mathematics is what ALL existence is about and designed by. ALL life improvement can be "factored" and therefore is mathematical! Fairly shortsighted for such a man whose legacy gives out a prize for peace when he developed, manufactured and made his fortune from weapons of destruction. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Nobel Apr 13 08, 12:24 AM

triviapaul

Nobel asks, "How does this benefit mankind?" Mathematics in itself is a purely theoretical field, but the results are used in all applied sciences. That there is no Nobel Prize for methematics doesn't mean that mathematicians can't receive the Nobel Prize, they simply get it for the field in which their research is applied and benefits mankind. For example, mathematician Paul Dirac provided a mathematical framework for quantum physics, and for this mathematical work he shared the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1933. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirac Apr 13 08, 6:00 AM

queproblema

Alfred Nobel had the rare privilege of reading his own obituary, which explains why he didn't care to be remembered as "the merchant of death." http://history1900s.about.com/library/weekly/aa042000a.htm A number of mathematicians, including Albert Einstein, Enrico Fermi, and John Nash, have won a Nobel prize. Einstein and Fermi won in physics and Nash in economics. http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Societies/Nobel.html Apr 13 08, 11:08 AM