An interesting figure from the world of mathematics — Grigori Perelman, born in Leningrad in 1966, is the type of scientist we rarely see today. He came, solved one of the greatest mathematical problems, and then simply decided he had enough of it.

What was his thing actually about? The Poincaré conjecture — a problem that nearly broke mathematicians’ brains for almost a hundred years. It sounds complicated, but the core is simple. Imagine a three-dimensional space that is closed and has no holes. The conjecture states that it is essentially like a sphere. Not a physical sphere you see in a store, but an abstract topological shape. If it has no passages or holes, it’s a ball. If it has a hole, it might be a cup or a bubble. It’s not about how it looks on the surface — it’s about the fundamental structure of the space.

Grigori Perelman didn’t do it the way other sciences do. No press conferences, no media circus. In 2002 and 2003, he simply uploaded his work to arXiv — an open platform for mathematicians — and left it there. He explained his proof in detail using Ricci flow and geometric topology. The mathematical community then spent years verifying it because the proof was completely complex.

What happened next? In 2006, he received the Fields Medal, and in 2010, a million dollars from the Clay Mathematics Institute for solving the Millennium Prize Problem. But Perelman refused everything. All the awards, all the money. His response was basically: why would I need awards and money when I know how to control the world?

Since around 2005 or 2006, he more or less withdrew from the academic world. He doesn’t attend conferences, doesn’t publish new work, doesn’t work at universities. Today, he lives a very secluded life in St. Petersburg with his mother. Sometimes someone takes a photo of him in a store buying cheap groceries and paying cash. Journalists see him very rarely, and he doesn’t give interviews.

His reason for leaving? Criticism of how the mathematical community functions, and simply a lack of interest in fame and wealth. Grigori Perelman is an interesting case — a person who solved something that broke the world, and then decided that was enough for him. No ego, no seeking attention. Pure scientific work that stands on its own.