Jean-Pierre Serre - The Abel Prize interview 2003

0:15 Reaction to winning the Abel Prize 0:56 What made you go into algebraic topology? 2:24 Homotopy theory 3:09 Fibre space 5:19 Serre's work on number theory 5:59 Do you have a geometric or an algebraic intuition? 7:06 Which of your theories or results do you like most? 9:00 Is mathematics a young mans' game? 10:33 The importance of transformation theory of elliptic functions for the arithmetic theory of elliptic curves 13:00 Hermite said that Abel had given mathematicians something to work on for the next 150 years. Agree? 14:04 Abel writes "one should strive to give a problem a form such that it is always possible to solve it — and that by presenting a problem in a well-chosen form the statement itself will contain the seeds of its solution. 15:00 The Role of Proofs 16:30 Is there proofs of little value? 17:50 On the proof of the classification of the simple finite groups? 19:37 If a proof is 1,200 pages long, what use is it? 20:55 Are some areas of mathematics more important than others? 22:20 On the correctness of the Poincaré conjecture proof 23:00 Important mathematical problems you'd like to see solved. Comments on the Clay millennium prize 25:28 Other problems of the same statue [as the Clay Millennium problems] 26:08 Systematic thinker vs sudden insights 27:52 A master expositor 28:26 How should young mathematicians cope with the explosion of subjects and sub subjects? 30:07 Does mathematics attract enough young talent? 32:37 Interests beside mathematics Interview in written. Notices of the American Mathematical Society: https://www.ams.org/notices/200402/comm-serre.pdf The Abel Prize interview 2003 with Jean-Pierre Serre. Interviewed by mathematicians Martin Raussen og Christian Skau. Produced by UniMedia