18.09.2015 change 18.09.2015

The International Stefan Banach Prize for Finnish mathematician

Source: Fotolia Source: Fotolia

Finnish mathematician Dr. Joonas Ilmavirta, whose work may be used in the interpretation of X-ray images, received the International Stefan Banach Prize on September 8 in Warsaw.

The prize (25 thousand zlotys) is awarded for the best doctoral thesis in mathematics. According to the jury justification, the winner’s research not only can lead to better interpretation in radiotherapy, but also addresses interesting and important mathematical problems.

The award ceremony took place during the inauguration of the 6th Forum of Polish Mathematicians at Warsaw University of Technology. PAP - Science in Poland is one of the media sponsors of the conference.

Dr. Ilmavirta explained in an interview with PAP that in medical imaging or industry testing we often want to see what is inside an object, but we can not physically enter there. We can not cut a patient in half or travel to the centre of the Earth. To find out what is inside, you have to resort to indirect methods. This might be a physics issue, but when we formulate them in the language of mathematics, it becomes a complicated problem. In his research Dr. Ilmavirta focuses on one of those purely mathematical problems associated with indirect measurements. He admitted that while it is not applied mathematics, it is mathematics, which can find applications.

Prize-winning paper "On the Broken Ray Transform" was written under the supervision of Professor Mikko Salo at the University of Jyvaeskylae in Finland. In his dissertation, the winner described the mathematical tools useful for studying the broken X-ray waves. His results have important applications in computed tomography. On the one hand they will help in better interpretation of X-ray images, on the other - they lead to new mathematical problems, for example concerning optimisation methods on Riemannian manifolds.

According to Dr. Ilmavirta, this is a very new field of knowledge. We still know very little about it. It\'s still an uncharted territory that we need to explore. For the researcher it is an adventure to explore the area for which there is no good enough theory yet.

He compared solving mathematical problems to solving puzzles. He said that in sudoku you need to determine where to insert each number. When solving a math problem, there are no rules to the puzzle. Researchers have to invent these rules themselves.. He admitted, however, that the satisfaction of solving a mathematical problem is quite similar to satisfaction we feel after solving a difficult puzzle.

The International Stefan Banach Prize for outstanding doctoral dissertation in the mathematical sciences is awarded by Ericpol and the Polish Mathematical Society. It is an expression of appreciation for mathematics and the role it plays in the modern world. The initiative also aims to popularise the achievements of Stefan Banach and the Polish science. The award is one of the highest financial gratifications awarded in mathematics in Poland. Now in its seventh edition.

During the 6th Forum of Polish Mathematicians at Warsaw University of Technology, the prizes for the best Polish mathematicians were also presented. Polish Mathematical Society Prize for young mathematicians went to Błażej Wróbel from Wrocław University of Technology, Kuratowski Prize was awarded ex aequo to Joanna Kułaga-Przymus from the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń and Mateusz Michałek from the Institute of Mathematics PAS. In turn, the Stefan Banach Polish Mathematical Society Prize Main Prize for achievements in the field of mathematical research went to Prof. Krzysztof Frączek from the Nicolaus Copernicus University.

Prof. Stefan Banach (1892-1945) was the creator of functional analysis, a large branch of mathematics that is important in modern applications and that helped to find the equations used to describe complex natural phenomena, including quantum mechanics.

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