Caucher Birkar — from Asylum Seeker to Fields Medal Winner at Cambridge
MATHS, 1 Caucher Birkar, 41, at VERSION Cambridge University, photographed by Jude Edginton REPR O OP HEARD THE ONE ABOUT THE ASYLUM SEEKER SUBS WHO WANDERED INTO A BRITISH UNIVERSITY... A RT AND CAME OUT A MATHS SUPERSTAR? PR ODUCTION CLIENT Caucher Birkar grew up in a Kurdish peasant family in a war zone and arrived in Nottingham as a refugee – now he has received the mathematics equivalent of the Nobel prize. By Tom Whipple BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN 91TTM1940232.pgs 01.04.2019 17:39 MATHS, 2 VERSION ineteen years ago, the mathematics Caucher Birkar in Isfahan, Receiving the Fields Medal If that makes sense, congratulations: you department at the University of Iran, in 1999 in Rio de Janeiro, 2018 now have a very hazy understanding of Nottingham received an email algebraic geometry. This is the field that from an asylum seeker who Birkar works in. wanted to talk to someone about The problem with explaining maths is REPR algebraic geometry. not, or at least not always, the stupidity of his They replied and invited him in. listeners. It is more fundamental than that: O OP N So it was that, shortly afterwards, it is language. Mathematics is not designed Caucher Birkar, the 21-year-old to be described in words. It is designed to be son of a Kurdish peasant family, described in mathematics. This is the great stood in front of Ivan Fesenko, a professor at triumph of the subject. It was why a Kurdish Nottingham, and began speaking in broken asylum seeker with bad English could convince SUBS English.
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