[(Title)] Fields Medal: Aussie genius Akshay Venkatesh wins 'Nobel Prize of mathematics'.

When Akshay Venkatesh was 13 years old and had completed his high school studies, he told the ABC he was aiming to "maybe become a mathematician".

当阿克沙伊·文卡特希（AkshayVenkatesh）13岁就完成了高中学业时，他告诉澳大利亚广播公司（ABC），他的目标是“可能成为一个数学家”。

Well, that came true — and then some.

现在这个目标实现了，而且他还做的更好。

Professor Venkatesh, who graduated from the University of Western Australia aged 16 with honours in pure mathematics, has achieved his subject's highest honour.

文卡特希教授从西澳大利亚大学毕业，年满16岁，获得该学科的最高荣誉，纯粹数学（pure mathmatics）荣誉学位。

He's been awarded the Fields Medal, affectionately known as the "Nobel Prize for mathematics" — awarded once every four years to between two and four people under the age of 40.

他被授予菲尔兹奖（Fields Medal），该奖项每四年颁发一次，授予2至4名40岁以下的获奖者，被誉为“数学界的诺贝尔奖”。

It's an amazing achievement for the 36-year-old, who was described as a "prodigy" and a "genius" during his teenage years in Perth.

这对36岁的年轻人来说是一个了不起的成就，他十几岁在珀斯的时，就被称为“神童”和“天才”。

But for his mum, who is immensely proud of him, she just wants him to be happy.

文卡特希的母亲非常为他自豪，但对于她来说只希望他能够快乐。

"That is all I hope for him, that he is happy and he loves what he does," said Svetha Venkatesh, who is herself a professor of computer science at Deakin University, and a leader in the field of machine learning.

斯韦莎·文卡特希说：“这是我对他的所有希望，他很快乐，热爱他所做的事情。”文卡特希本人是迪肯大学计算机科学教授，也是机器学习领域的领头人。

Professor Venkatesh, who teaches at Stanford University in the US, is being honoured for work that combines insights from several different fields of mathematics.

文卡特希教授在美国斯坦福大学任教，他因结合了几个不同数学领域的见解而获得荣誉。

His former classmate, and now professor of mathematics at the University of WA, Michael Giudici said explaining his work to the general public was hard.

他原来的同学，现在在西澳大利亚大学担任数学教授，迈克尔·吉迪奇说要向公众解释他的工作是很困难的。

"If it was easy for me to explain, then he wouldn't have received the Fields Medal," Professor Giudici said.

“如果我很容易解释，那么他就不会获得菲尔兹奖章，”吉迪奇教授说。

One of Professor Venkatesh's most famous pieces of work is solving what's called the "subconvexity problem".

文卡特希教授最著名的文章之一就是解决所谓的“次凸问题（subconvexity problem）”。

To do that, he developed new techniques and borrowed from other areas of mathematics, Professor Giudici said.

吉迪奇教授说，为了做到这一点，他开发了新的技术，并借鉴了其他数学领域。

He recalled that despite Professor Venkatesh being so much younger than the rest of the group at university, he was incredibly well adjusted.

他回忆道，尽管文卡特希教授比大学里的其他人年轻得多，但他调整得令人难以置信。

"I know in our fourth year, he was probably one of the main characters in the group — always discussing things other than mathematics," he said.

“我知道在我们的第四年，他可能是小组中的主角之一 - 总是讨论数学以外的事情，”他说。

"We spent a lot of time as honours students talking about cricket."

"我们花了很多时间表扬学生们谈论板球。"

His mum said that was something she was keen to foster.

他妈妈说她渴望儿子得到培养。

"He was a normal, happy child growing up in a normal family," she said. "He never did anything particularly special because he was good at maths. It was just one of those things."

“他是个正常的、快乐的孩子，”她说，“他从来没有做过什么特别的事，因为他擅长数学，这只是其中的一件事。”

When he started university at the age of 13, one of his mentors was Professor Cheryl Praeger, a fellow of the Australian Academy of Science.

当他13岁时开始大学时，他的一名导师是澳大利亚科学院的谢丽尔·普拉格（Cheryl Praeger）教授。

"At our first meeting I was speaking with Akshay's mother Svetha while Akshay was sitting at a table in my office reading my blackboard, which contained fragments from a supervision of one of my PhD students, just completed,

"第一次见面时，我与阿克沙伊·文卡特希的母亲斯韦莎谈话，当时阿克沙伊坐在办公室一张桌子前，看黑板上的内容，上面写满了我的一名博士生刚刚完成的片段，”普雷格教授回忆道。

" Professor Praeger recalled.

"At Akshay's request I explained what the problem was. He coped with quite a lot of detail and I found that he could easily grasp the essence of the research.

“应阿克沙伊·文卡特希的请求，我解释了问题所在。他处理了大量的细节，我发现他能够轻松地掌握研究的精髓。从一开始就很清楚，文卡达什很有才华，他很有兴趣，并立即处理各种数学问题。我确信他会在数学上取得巨大成就，我为他获得菲尔兹奖章而激动不已。”

"It was clear from the start that Akshay was amazingly talented. He was interested and immediately engaged with all kinds of mathematical questions.

"I was sure that he would achieve a great deal mathematically, and I'm thrilled at his stunning success in being awarded a Fields Medal."

Professor Venkatesh is just the second Australian to receive the Fields Medal. Dr Terence Tao won the award in 2006.

文卡特希教授是第二位获奖的澳大利亚人，特伦斯·陶博士曾于2006年获奖。

Comedian and mathematics communicator Adam Spencer said it was a "great day for Australian mathematics" and the crown in a string of recent achievements from Australian mathematicians.

喜剧演员和数学交流家亚当·斯潘塞说，这是澳大利亚数学的“伟大日子”，也是澳大利亚数学家最近取得的一系列成就中的皇冠。

"Australian mathematics is on a real roll here," Spencer said.

斯宾塞说：“澳大利亚数学正在这得到真正的发展。”

"First mathematician Geordie Williamson from the University of Sydney was admitted to the Royal Society, making him the youngest member.

来自悉尼大学的第一数学家乔迪·威廉姆森（Geordie Williamson）被皇家学会录取，使他成为最年轻的成员。

"Then Nalini Joshi, also from the University of Sydney was named vice-president of the International Mathematical Union.

然后，来自悉尼大学的纳利尼·乔希（NaliniJoshi）被任命为国际数学联合会副主席。

"And now Akshay joins our own Terence Tao as a winner of the world's elite prize in mathematics. Boo yah!"

“现在阿克沙伊成为我们自己的陶哲轩（Terence Tao），成为世界上数学精英奖的获奖者。这太棒了。”

In 2016, when Professor Venkatesh was awarded another prestigious prize, he said doing mathematics gave him a feeling of "transcendence".

2016年，当文卡特希教授被授予另一项享有盛名的奖项时，他说做数学给他一种“超然”的感觉。“你感觉自己是真正有意义事物的一部分，”他说道。

"You feel like you've been part of something really meaningful," he said at the time.

Now a husband and father of two, he said children were a great way to force him to stop obsessing about mathematical problems.

现在，一个丈夫和两个孩子的父亲，他说孩子是迫使他停止对数学问题困扰的好方法。

Those children are the joy of his life, his mother said.

"He is a terrific father, a wonderful father. And yes, they are the joy of his life. They are the absolute joys of my life, too," she added.

他母亲说孩子们是他一生的喜悦。“他是一个了不起的父亲，一个好父亲。是的，孩子们是他生命中的快乐。也是我生命中最快乐的事，”她补充道。

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