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This funding proposal says:

enter image description here

But Ben's name is not mentioned here.

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    $\begingroup$ I've already got a downvote. It's my first time ever here, should I ask in the chat room instead of here? $\endgroup$
    – Nike Dattani
    Commented Jul 25, 2020 at 20:06
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    $\begingroup$ It's a fine question but this is really old and it might be an old draft. I'd have to check our records and compare with the proposal we actually sent. How did you find this? $\endgroup$
    – François G. Dorais Mod
    Commented Jul 25, 2020 at 20:15
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    $\begingroup$ @FrançoisG.Dorais I was doing some research, and this PDF showed up in a Google search! I recognized the name Ben Green because I'm an Oxonian and one of my former students (Albert Wood) did his 4th year research project with Ben. When I saw his name in the proposal I reacted "wow Ben got the Fields medal recently? how did I miss that!" $\endgroup$
    – Nike Dattani
    Commented Jul 25, 2020 at 20:18
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    $\begingroup$ Well, I can confirm that Ben Green won many highly prestigious awards but not a Fields medal at this time. We might have corrected this error in the proposal we submitted to the Sloan Foundation nearly a decade ago, I'm not sure (and it's not worth looking up unless you really want to know). I'm sure we would have appreciated the correction at the time but we probably would have responded editing "Fields medalist" to a more encompassing and accurate description of our highest profile users. $\endgroup$
    – François G. Dorais Mod
    Commented Jul 25, 2020 at 20:32
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    $\begingroup$ @FrançoisG.Dorais Thanks. So basically my understanding is that it was a typo (most likely corrected in a later version). The final proposal would be interesting, since I'm doing something similar for the new Matter Modeling community that I started and very recently entered Beta on SE. But I've already picked up some good ideas from the PDF version that I linked in my question, and I don't want to ask you to spend unnecessary time finding a different version that's probably not much different. $\endgroup$
    – Nike Dattani
    Commented Jul 25, 2020 at 20:37
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    $\begingroup$ @FrançoisG.Dorais Since that funding proposal was old, I wonder if you know of any other Fields Medalists you could add here? I have already added Ed Witten. $\endgroup$
    – Nike Dattani
    Commented Jul 25, 2020 at 21:51
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    $\begingroup$ Peter Scholze has posted a few times on MO, mostly, though not entirely, before winning the Fields Medal. $\endgroup$
    – Will Sawin
    Commented Jul 26, 2020 at 14:42
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    $\begingroup$ Martin Hairer is also active here. Richards Borcherds used to be, but he has not visited the site for 8 years. $\endgroup$
    – MaoWao
    Commented Jul 26, 2020 at 18:01
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    $\begingroup$ There's Curtis McMullen (assuming it's the same person, which it looks like it is). $\endgroup$
    – Timothy Chow
    Commented Jul 28, 2020 at 23:05
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    $\begingroup$ I've added my downvote to this question. This old little error is not worth an inquiry, nor publicity. $\endgroup$
    – YCor
    Commented Jul 29, 2020 at 8:22
  • $\begingroup$ @MaoWao Do you know whether Michael Freedman or Michael Freedman is Michael Freedman? $\endgroup$
    – Nike Dattani
    Commented Jul 30, 2020 at 19:27
  • $\begingroup$ Apart from Freedman, I've checked all Fields medalists from 1982 or later and didn't find any more (but only checked their full names and then only last names). I'll check the rest later. Seems we got all the recent ones, at least. $\endgroup$
    – Nike Dattani
    Commented Jul 30, 2020 at 19:36
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    $\begingroup$ @user1271772 It seems quite likely that the first Michael Freedman is the fields medalist (but I don't have any privileged knowledge here). $\endgroup$
    – MaoWao
    Commented Jul 30, 2020 at 23:48
  • $\begingroup$ The link to the proposal is dead (error 404). Is it because of this question? Where can we see the proposal? $\endgroup$
    – Taladris
    Commented Aug 7, 2020 at 14:55
  • $\begingroup$ @Taladris I've updated it to WayBackMachine now. It would have been nice if when Scott Morrison removed it, he notified us here. $\endgroup$
    – Nike Dattani
    Commented Aug 7, 2020 at 14:59

1 Answer 1

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Presumably just a minor editing error — either a typo or a thinko.

Frankly, it seems a little odd to ask about this. As pointed out in comments, this pdf is an early draft of a ten-year-old funding proposal, so there’s nothing notable about finding minor errors in it; the only surprising thing is that this pdf is still online and discoverable.

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    $\begingroup$ However, giving a Field's medal to someone who didn't actually get one, is not a "minor" error. $\endgroup$
    – Nike Dattani
    Commented Aug 7, 2020 at 15:00
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    $\begingroup$ @user1271772 It would not be a minor error for the IMU to make. For anyone else, it's not a big deal. $\endgroup$
    – Will Sawin
    Commented Aug 9, 2020 at 18:05
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    $\begingroup$ @user1271772: Context is key. If a mathematician erroneously claimed a Fields Medal on their own CV or website, that would be a very serious error. If MO is listing affiliated Fields Medallists as one among many supporting elements of a funding proposal, that’s not so big, though certainly worth pointing out and correcting. But since the error is in a draft version of that ten year old proposal, it seems of very little significance at all. $\endgroup$
    – Peter LeFanu Lumsdaine
    Commented Aug 9, 2020 at 18:19

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