Fields Medal

The Fields Medal is often described as "the Nobel prize for mathematics." Though there is no formal rule to this effect, Fields Medals have traditionally been presented to young mathematicians (no older than 40).

The 2002 Fields Medals went to Laurent Lafforgue of the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques in Bures-sur-Yvette, France, honored for making major advances in the "Langlands Program," and to Vladimir Voevodsky of Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ, USA, honored for developing a new cohomology theory for algebraic varieties.

Rolf Nevanlinna Prize

The Nevanlinna Prize has been awarded since 1982 by the International Mathematical Union. It recognizes exceptional work in the more mathematical aspects of computer science. Like the Fields Medal, it is traditionally restricted to young researchers, no older than 40. The prize is named for Rolf Nevanlinna, a past president of the IMU.

The 2002 Nevanlinna Prize went to Madhu Sudan of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, in recognition of his work on "probabilistically checkable proofs, to non-approximability of optimization problems, and to error-correcting codes."