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<p>All of which demonstrates that you, Ben, are more than moderately serious about mathematics. ;) But, yeah, what you said as to the substance of the discussion.</p>
<p>Well, I wouldn't characterize myself as joining this debate so much as mocking it as thoroughly as I can without actually joining it. ;-)</p>
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But NO ONE from MIT ever got Fields Medal even though there are 5 times more MIT math alumnus are out there than Harvard.
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<p>First off, I don't know why you have such a bone on for the Fields Medal. Since when is the Fields Medal the greatest honor in math? After all, the major issue with the Fields Medal is that it can only be given to people who are under the age of 40. Hence, the Fields Medal is really only a designation for mathematicians who produce stuff at a young age. But if you produce a lot of groundbreaking research after age 40, you can't win the Fields Medal. </p>
<p>I think a far far better candidate would be the Wolf Prize in Mathematics, which is an assessment of your lifetime achievement in mathematics.</p>
<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_Prize%5B/url%5D">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_Prize</a> </p>
<p>I also see that Harvard has produced only 1 graduate who has ever won the Wolf Prize in Mathematics, whereas schools like Princeton and Chicago have produced several, and a place like Moscow State have produced quite a lot. So I guess according to your logic, mdx49, Princeton and Chicago are much better than Harvard, and Moscow State is much much better. So maybe you should be talking about the Harvard Phd's who have had the painful experience of being rejected from Princeton or Chicago or Moscow State.</p>