Why isn’t there a Nobel Prize for Mathematics?

The Nobel Prize was created by Alfred Nobel who left a will in which he expressed that he would like to see his fortune being applied on the creation of a foundation which would give prizes to the biggest achievements concerning Human Spirit upon several categories. Curiously and although Mathematics is considered to be an important field concerning scientific areas, this category was not chosen.

One of the most groundless reasons for that was the fact that he declared his love for a woman who refused him and chose a mathematician instead. However, there is no evidence about the truth of this story. It is thought that the most valid reason is that Alfred Nobel didn’t give much importance to Maths. He didn’t consider it to be a practical subject that would favour humanity. His will talked about “Inventions and Findings” of a great practical benefit for humanity and Maths was consider by him to be a subject with too much theoretical features.

However, there is an award that greatly recognizes this field through the Fields Medals, which are officially recognized as International Medal of Prominent Discoveries in Mathematics. They are awarded every four (when there is the world football championship) to mathematicians who have been distinguished because of their great discoveries in the Science Field.

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