Peter Lax receives 2004 Abel Prize

The 2005 Abel Prize in mathematics has been awarded to Peter D.
Lax of the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York
University.

The Abel prize is a mathematics prize of the Norwegian Academy of
Science and Letters, dedicated to the memory of Niels Henrik Abel
(1802-1829) on the occasion of the bicentenary of his birth. It is
modeled after the Nobel Prize, and developed from a proposal by the
mathematics department at the University of Oslo in fulfillment of a
request forwarded by the Norwegian mathematician Sophus Lie
towards the end of the 19th century.

From 2003 onward the Abel Prize has been awarded annually.
Previous Abel Prize recipients include Jean-Pierre Serre in 2003,
and Sir Michael Francis Atiyah and Isadore M. Singer in 2004.

Lax was awarded the Abel Prize "for his groundbreaking contributions
to the theory and application of partial differential equations and to the
computation of their solutions." In particular, Lax laid the foundations
for the modern theory of nonlinear hyperbolic systems in the 1950s and
1960s. He constructed explicit solutions, identified classes of especially
well-behaved systems, and studied of how solutions behave over a long
period of time.

For more details visit the Abel Prize Site.