JOHN MILNOR ’51 *54 was chosen March 23 to receive the 2011 Abel Prize from the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters — a $1 million award given annually for outstanding work in the field of mathematics. The former Princeton professor and current co-director of the Institute for Mathematical Sciences at Stony Brook University already had won the other highest honors in mathematics: the Fields Medal, the Wolf Prize, and three Steele prizes.
According to the Abel committee, which cited his “pioneering discoveries in topology, geometry, and algebra,” Milnor’s work displays “marks of great research: profound insights, vivid imagination, elements of surprise, and supreme beauty,” and it “changed the landscape of mathematics.”
LOCOMOTIVES Vassar College picked CHIP REID *82, chief White House correspondent for CBS News, to address the Class of 2011 at Vassar’s 147th Commencement. Reid is an undergraduate alumnus of Vassar. ... The new book by JODI PICOULT ’87, Sing You Home, reached No. 1 on The New York Times Best Sellers list for combined print and e-book fiction March 20. ... NASA’s Physics of the Cosmos program awarded three-year Einstein fellowships to PHILIP HOPKINS ’04 and Princeton graduate student Lorenzo Sironi. ... TIMOTHY FERRISS ’00 was the subject of a feature story in The New York Times March 25. Ferriss is promoting his new book,
The 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman. ... BROOKE SHIELDS ’87 signed on to play the role of Morticia in Broadway’s The Addams Family, beginning in late June. ... NATHAN HUBBARD ’97, CEO at Ticketmaster, was a panelist at South by Southwest, the Austin-based celebration of up-and-coming performers. Hubbard addressed the issue of ticket pricing, and was the “Goliath” on the panel “Indie Davids Take On Goliath Ticketmaster-Live Nation.”