Think Big

Grigori Perelman: The genius in hiding

Jennifer Ouellette, contributor

In November 2002, an obscure Russian mathematician named Grigori Perelman caused a sensation in the mathematical community when he posted the first in a series of papers proving the most famous unsolved problem in topology: the Poincaré conjecture. He caused another sensation four years later when he was awarded the Fields medal - the "mathematics Nobel" - for his work, declined to accept it, and then left mathematics altogether. When last heard of, he was living a reclusive existence at his mother's home in St Petersburg.

In Perfect Rigor, Masha Gessen sets out to unravel the mystery of Perelman: what is it that has set him apart from mathematicians who came before him and allowed him to solve one of the most difficult mathematical problems of our time, and what made him become so disillusioned.

In deft, lucid prose, Gessen outlines Perelman's boyhood in Russia, his early training and his triumph at the 1982 International Mathematical Olympiad, when he achieved a perfect score and earned a gold medal. Through interviews with his past mentors and colleagues, she pieces together an intriguing psychological portrait of the mind of a genius, and the attributes that led him to solve a puzzle that had baffled mathematicians for generations - including the eccentricities and antisocial traits that would become so pronounced at the pinnacle of his career.

Gessen's achievement is all the more remarkable because she was unable to interview her subject in person; since 2006, Perelman has eschewed all communication with journalists. Non-mathematical readers will find the chapter outlining the details of the Poincaré conjecture to be among the most accessible summations of this difficult topic.

If Perfect Rigor has a flaw, it is that the narrative is a little slow out of the starting gate. Gessen opens with a rather dry chapter on the historical and cultural background of 20th-century Russian mathematics. Yet elsewhere she interweaves this context with the narrative of Perelman's life with such skill that one doesn't really need a detailed introductory history lesson to get a feel for what life would have been like for the gifted Jewish boy coming of age in the Soviet Union.

This year the Clay Mathematics Institute is expected to award Perelman $1 million for solving the Poincaré conjecture - one of several "Millennium Challenges" laid out at the turn of the 21st century. Will Perelman emerge from his self-imposed exile and accept the award, or will he once again refuse the accolades bestowed on him by what he perceives to be a corrupt system? If Gessen's portrait is an accurate one, my money is on the latter.

Book Information:
Perfect Rigor: A genius and the mathematical breakthrough of the century by Masha Gessen
Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $26