Abel Prize of 2007

Abel Prize is the equivalent of a Nobel Prize for mathematics, established by the Norway government since 2002 to mark the 200th birthday of the great Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel. In March of this year the Norwegian Academy of Science awarded the 2007 Abel Prize to the NYU Professor S. R. Srinivasa Varadhan “for his fundamental contributions to probability theory and in particular for creating a unified theory of large deviation”.

A good down to earth explanation of the theory of large deviation is given by the Plus Magazine as the following:

In many real-life situations rare events — like 1000 lorries rolling over a bridge in one day causing it to fail, or a freak wave causing a dam to burst — are simply too serious to be taken lightly. Striking the balance between feasibility and safety involves subtle and complex mathematics that is not covered by the classical theorems of probability theory. This is what the theory of large deviation, for which Varadhan is being honoured, is all about.

So the real excitement for me is that the theory of large deviation and the significance of Prof. Varadham's contribution may just be the throughway that can leading to further understandings on freaque waves!