US mathematician John F Nash Jr and Canada-born American national Louis Nirenberg have been named the joint winners of the Abel Prize for 2015 for their contributions to mathematical sciences, the Norwegian Academy of Sciences and Letters said.
The two mathematicians won the prize, dubbed the maths Nobel, "for striking and seminal contributions to the theory of nonlinear partial differential equations and its applications to geometric analysis," Xinhua news agency reported citing a press release issued by the academy on Wednesday.
Nash, 86, and Nirenberg, 90, will receive the financial award of six million Norwegian kroners (about $765,000) from Norway's King Harald during a formal ceremony in Oslo on May 19.
"Their breakthroughs have developed into versatile and robust techniques that have become essential tools for the study of nonlinear partial differential equations. Their impact can be felt in all branches of the theory," the Abel committee said in a citation.
Outside mathematics, Nash is best known for a paper he wrote about game theory, the mathematics of decision-making, which ultimately won him the 1994 Nobel Prize for economics and features strongly in the 2001 film about him, "A Beautiful Mind".
The Abel prize has been awarded annually since 2003 in memory of the Norwegian mathematics genius Niels Henrik Abel.
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