The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters/Institute for Advanced Study (Abel) announced yesterday that it awarded the prestigious Abel Prize for Mathematics to American Karen Uhlenbeck, for her work on partial differential equations. This is the first time a woman receives the award launched by the Norwegian government back in 2003, a statement by the Academy said. The American scientist, from Cleveland, Ohio, has revolutionized tools and methods in global analysis that have become in the toolbox of any geometrics specialist. Uhlenbeck, 76, is a senior research scholar at Princeton University and an associate professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in the US. The head of the Abel committee, Hans Munthe-Kaas said Uhlenbeck received the prize for her fundamental work in geometric analysis and gauge theory which dramatically changed the mathematical landscape. Her theories have revolutionized “our understanding of minimal surfaces such as those formed by soap bubbles….” He added. (An Nahar, March 20, 2019)