Justin Schwartz wrote: > >> I am told that Alfred Nobel's wife had an affair with a mathematician, so >> that when the inventor of dynamite decided to endow his famous Prize, he >> specifically stated that mathematicians shouldn't get rewarded. > > David Hilbert. So far as I know the story is true. >
that would be a pity, for they couldnt find a greater mathematician/scientist for the award! anyway, according to snopes the story is false: http://www.snopes2.com/science/nobel.htm Claim: The Nobel Foundation does not confer a prize for achievement in mathematics because the man who established it, Alfred Nobel, was upset that his wife was carrying on an affair with an eminent mathematician. Status: False. <...> In the century since the Nobel Foundation was established, many have speculated on the reasons why Alfred Nobel did not provide for a prize to be awarded for achievement in the field of mathematics. Surely an eminent man of science such as Alfred Nobel could not simply have forgotten about mathematics, so he must have had a good reason for omitting it. With no obvious reason at hand, people invented one, and as usual the invented tale had a bit of salaciousness to it: Alfred Nobel deliberately avoided establishing a prize for mathematics out of vindictiveness because a prominent Swedish mathematician was carrying on an affair with his wife. The "wife" theory is easily discounted, since Nobel was never married. Some variations of the legend claim it was Nobel's fiancée or mistress who was carrying on the affair, with her partner in infidelity identified as the eminent Swedish mathematician Gosta Mittag-Leffler. Nobel reportedly did have a mistress, a Viennese woman named Sophie Hess, but there is no evidence she ever had anything to do with Mittag-Leffler. Another version of the legend maintains that Nobel bore animosity towards Mittag-Leffler for some other reason, and he therefore avoided establishing a mathematics prize because Mittag-Leffler would almost certainly have been one of its first recipients. However, this version also has little factual evidence to support it, as: <...> <more at the URL above> --ravi
