zlacker

> 1. If he didn't turn down the money, you wouldn't have heard of him at all;

Perelman provided a proof of the Poincare Conjecture, which had stumped mathematicians for a century.

It was also one of the seven Millenium problems https://www.claymath.org/millennium-problems/, and as of 2024, the only one to be solved.

Andrew Wiles became pretty well known after proving Fermat's last theorem, despite there not being an financial reward.

>>SJC_Ha+(OP)
Sure, but most people have heard of Perelman due to the rejection controversy (particularly, most people in Russia, who don't care about achievements of that sort, sadly).

Granted, we're not on a forum where most people go, so I shouldn't have said "you" in that case.