The Abel Prize for 2019 has been awarded to Karen Uhlenbeck. The citation reads:

for her pioneering achievements in geometric partial differential equations, gauge theory and integrable systems, and for the fundamental impact of her work on analysis, geometry and mathematical physics.

A press release points out that she is the first woman to win the Abel Prize. It also mentions that her presentation of a Plenary Lecture at the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) in Kyoto in 1990 was the second time a woman had done so, after Emmy Noether in 1932.

Jim Al-Khalili is quoted in the same release, saying:

The recognition of Uhlenbeck’s achievements should have been far greater, for her work has led to some of the most important advances in mathematics in the last 40 years.

The Abel Prize Laureate 2019 International Page has the citation and a biography in eleven languages, including English.

The Abel Prize, lest we forget, is one of two major mathematics prizes that get referred to as ‘the Nobel Prize of mathematics’, and probably deserves the title more than the Fields Medal.

Selected news coverage:

The Abel Prize 2019 at Plus Magazine.

Karen Uhlenbeck, Uniter of Geometry and Analysis, Wins Abel Prize at Quanta.

Soap-bubble pioneer is first woman to win prestigious maths prize at Nature News.