Poincare's Prize

The amazing story of one of the greatest math problems of all time and the reclusive genius who solved it. In the tradition ofFermats EnigmaandPrime Obsession George Szpiro brings to life the giants of mathematics who struggled to prove a theorem for a century and the mysterious man from St. Petersburg Grigory Perelman who fi nally accomplished the impossible. In 1904 Henri Poincar developed the Poincar Conjecture an attempt to understand higher-dimensional space and possibly the shape of the universe. The problem was he couldnt prove it. A century later it was named a Millennium Prize problem one of the seven hardest problems we can imagine. Now this holy grail of mathematics has been found.. Accessibly interweaving history and math Szpiro captures the passion frustration and excitement of the hunt and provides a fascinating portrait of a contemporary noble-genius.