Grigori Perelman - a hero!

A couple of days ago, medias (in France) talked about a russian mathematician. His name is Grigori Perelman. This guy actually solved the famous Poincarre''s conjecture in 2001. He was granted the Fields medal that is equivalent to a Nobel prize for mathematicians, and he simply denied to accept it. He also recently refused the 1 millon dollar award by the Clay institute for solving Poincarre's conjecture.

Medias presented Perelman as a fool refusing the money... To my opinion this guy is a hero. Anyone involved in mathematics would understand that Poincarre's conjecture has no price. Perelman belongs to History and that is certainly enough for him.

Also the Perelman's story has some dark sides well known amongst mathematicians. To cut it very short: some established mathematicians tried to bypass him and rewrite his proof. Fortunately Perelman was careful enough to archive his papers on the public site math-arxiv with a time stamp on them. So he could eventually defend the partenity of his work. I remember a paper by an american journalist that investigated the whole story. She was eventually sued by mathematicians that did not appreciate her presentation of facts. Blue sky research can be a tough world.