Don Zagier Receives Fudan-Zhongzhi Science Award 2021

The Fudan-Zhongzhi Science Award 2021 is awarded jointly to Don Zagier and Benedict Gross for "their formulation and proof of the Gross-Zagier formula, which relates the height of Heegner points with the central derivatives of the zeta function of the corresponding elliptic curves. They established striking cases of the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer Conjecture, which brought many applications to long-standing problems, and deeply influenced the development of number theory in recent decades." The prize committee also recognized Don Zagier's "profound work on modular forms and special functions which resolve questions and problems in diverse areas ranging from topology and moduli spaces to geometry and mathematical physics."

The Fudan-Zhongzhi Science Award was jointly founded in 2015 by Fudan University and Zhongzhi Enterprise Group, in recognition of scientists who have made fundamental and groundbreaking achievements in physics, mathematics, and biomedicine. The Award aims to promote global scientific research, and advance science and technology, providing an international platform for research communication, discussion and sharing. The 2021 Award is the second given in the field of mathematics. The laureates share RMB 3 million (around USD 450,000) donated by Zhongzhi Enterprise Group. The prize ceremony will be held on 19 December 2021 in Shanghai.

Don Zagier is an emeritus director at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in Bonn: Born 1951. Studies of mathematics and physics, M.I.T. 1966-1968. D.Phil., Oxford University 1971. Habilitation, University of Bonn 1975. Member of academic staff, SFB Theoretische Mathematik, University of Bonn 1971-1984. Professor, University of Bonn since 1976. Chair Professor of Number Theory, University of Maryland 1979-1990. Professor, Kyushu University (Fukuoka, Japan) 1990-1991 and 1992-1993. Professor, University of Utrecht 1990-2001. Scientific Member, MPI for Mathematics since 1984. Director, MPI for Mathematics 1995-2019. Professor, Collège de France (Paris) 2000-2014. Distinguished Staff Associate, ICTP, Trieste since 2014. Carus Prize 1984. Frank Nelson Cole Prize 1987. Karl Georg Christian von Staudt Prize 2001. Member of the National Academy of Sciences 2017. Honorary member of the London Mathematical Society since 2019.

Link to the official prize announcement

Recordings of the prize ceremony (including Professor Gross's acceptance speech and Professor Zagier's popular lecture "The Old and Beautiful Theory of Numbers"): https://archive.mpim-bonn.mpg.de/id/eprint/4688/