Apr 22, 2017
British mathematician and Fields medallist Michael Atiyah was born on this day in 1929. He has developed a numerous sophisticated mathematical techniques in algebraic geometry and differential equations, which have been applied in fields including thermodynamics and particle physics. He was awarded the Fields Medal in 1966, when he was 37 years old, for his work in developing K-theory.
Image credit: Michael Atiyah and Friedrich Hirzebruch (right), the creators of topological K-theory by Konrad Jacobs. CC BY-SA 2.0 DE via Wikimedia Commons.