Grigori Perelman stands as one of the most exceptional mathematical minds of the modern era, renowned for his profound contributions to geometric topology and differential geometry. Born on June 13, 1966, in Leningrad, Soviet Union, to Russian parents of Jewish faith, he demonstrated extraordinary mathematical talent from childhood that led to specialized training under Sergei Rukshin. As a high school student representing the Soviet Union, he achieved a perfect score and won a gold medal at the 1982 International Mathematical Olympiad, establishing his prodigious abilities on the international stage. He pursued advanced mathematics at Leningrad State University without entrance examination requirements, earning his doctorate in 1990 before joining the Leningrad Department of Steklov Institute of Mathematics, where he began his professional research career that would soon attract international attention.
Perelman's most celebrated achievement came in 2002-2003 when he developed revolutionary techniques in the analysis of Ricci flow and successfully proved both the century-old Poincaré conjecture and Thurston's geometrization conjecture, solving problems that had confounded mathematicians for nearly a century. His trilogy of papers published online, beginning with The Entropy Formula for the Ricci Flow and Its Geometric Applications in November 2002, presented a profound breakthrough that experts immediately recognized as solving one of mathematics' most famous open problems. Prior to this landmark work, Perelman had already made significant contributions to the field, including his 1994 proof of the soul conjecture in Riemannian geometry, which had remained unsolved for twenty years, and important advances in the study of Alexandrov spaces during the 1990s. The mathematical community spent several years meticulously verifying his proofs, with the Clay Mathematics Institute ultimately recognizing the solution of the Poincaré conjecture as complete and valid.
Demonstrating extraordinary principle and disinterest in conventional academic recognition, Perelman declined the prestigious Fields Medal in 2006, becoming the first mathematician ever to reject this highest honor in mathematics, and later refused the one million dollar Millennium Prize from the Clay Mathematics Institute in 2010. His disillusionment with the mathematical community's ethical standards led him to resign from the Steklov Institute of Mathematics in December 2005 and declare his departure from professional mathematics in 2006, choosing to live in seclusion in Saint Petersburg. Despite his withdrawal from academic life, Perelman's contributions continue to profoundly influence geometric analysis and topology, with his innovative methods in Ricci flow opening new avenues of research that mathematicians worldwide continue to explore and develop. His uncompromising dedication to mathematical truth over personal recognition has cemented his legacy as one of the most extraordinary and principled mathematicians of the modern era.
