1957-

English Mathematician

While still a graduate student, English mathematician Simon Donaldson published advances in topology (a division of geometry concerning the mathematical properties of deformed space) heralded by scholars as an important contribution to the understanding of four-dimensional "exotic" space. Besides sparking worldwide attention, Donaldson's work earned a 1986 Fields Medal for advancing understanding of four-dimensional space and, in particular, the topology of four-dimensional manifolds. Donaldson's work established that four-dimensional space has properties that are different from all other dimensions.

Donaldson used ideas taken from theoretical physics (for example, Yang-Mills equations and gauge theories) to develop classifications for four-dimensional space. Using elegant methodologies involving nonlinear partial differential equations and algebraic geometry, Donaldson's discoveries are regarded by many mathematicians as a seminal new synthesis between pure and applied mathematics—that is, between advancements of mathematical theory and mathematics used to solve practical problems in science...