Professor Hillel Furstenberg of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem was awarded the Abel Prize by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, the latter announced on Wednesday.
The prize, whose history dates back to 1899, is named after Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel and directly modeled after the Nobel Prizes. It is one of the most prestigious math awards in the world.
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The prize committee jointly honored Furstenberg and Yale University's Gregory Margulis "for pioneering the use of methods from probability and dynamics in group theory, number theory and combinatorics."
The two have not formally collaborated, but their work builds upon each other's contributions to mathematical theory.
According to the university and local media reports, the two invented random walk techniques mapping a succession of random steps. The theory has become a central branch of probability theory and has been used to investigate mathematical objects.
This theory has also introduced probabilistic methods to solve problems in group theory, number theory, combinatorics and graph theory.
"Furstenberg and Margulis stunned the mathematical world by their ingenious use of probabilistic methods and random walks to solve deep problems in diverse areas of mathematics," a statement by Chairman of The Abel Prize Committee Hans Munthe-Kaas said.
"They brought down the traditional wall between pure and applied mathematics," he continued, "and opened up a wealth of new results with applications to communication technology and computer science."
