Mathematicians like to think that their field transcends politics, but as this brief history of the International Congress of Mathematicians shows, international mathematics has always been coloured by world events.
A quick introduction to transcendental numbers, a famous problem which relates to them, and how the person who solved it became a victim of political tensions.
Clément Mouhot tells us about his work trying to understand some of the most beautiful structures in mathematics and physics.
We talk to Ivan Smith, invited lecturer at the ICM 2018, about his work and what he likes about the Congress.
We talk to two of the organisers of the ICM 2022 in Saint Petersburg.
The Nevanlinna prize winner Constantinos Daskalakis explains why equilibrium may be unattainable and why it's good to be constructive.
Daskalakis tells us about the work he is being honoured for, which involves complexity theory, game theory, online dating and traffic jams.
Caucher Birkar has been awarded the Fields medal for his contribution to algebraic geometry.
Peter Scholze has received the Fields medal 2018 for transforming arithmetic algebraic geometry.
Harvey Friedman tells us about a mathematical movement called constructivism and why we need it.
Spider solitaire is a popular online game. But are users right in their suspicion that some programs are rigged?