1970 Fields Medal (4)
Reason for Award
Proved jointly with W. Feit that all non-cyclic finitesimple groupshave even order. The extension of this work by Thompson determined the minimal simple finite groups, that is, the simple finite groups whose proper subgroups aresolvable.
Laureates
John Griggs Thompson,
United States of America
Other works in the same year
- Generalized theGelfond-Schneider theorem(the solution to Hilbert's seventh problem). From this work he generatedtranscendental numbersnot previously identified.
- Generalized work ofZariskiwho had proved for dimension ≤3 the theorem concerning the resolution of singularities on analgebraic variety. Hironaka proved the results in any dimension.
- Made important advances in topology, the most well-known being his proof of the topological invariance of thePontrjagin classesof thedifferentiable manifold. His work included a study of the cohomology and homotopy of Thom spaces.