<P> Arguably the most prestigious award in mathematics is the Fields Medal, established in 1936 and awarded every four years (except around World War II) to as many as four individuals . The Fields Medal is often considered a mathematical equivalent to the Nobel Prize . </P> <P> The Wolf Prize in Mathematics, instituted in 1978, recognizes lifetime achievement, and another major international award, the Abel Prize, was instituted in 2003 . The Chern Medal was introduced in 2010 to recognize lifetime achievement . These accolades are awarded in recognition of a particular body of work, which may be innovational, or provide a solution to an outstanding problem in an established field . </P> <P> A famous list of 23 open problems, called "Hilbert's problems", was compiled in 1900 by German mathematician David Hilbert . This list achieved great celebrity among mathematicians, and at least nine of the problems have now been solved . A new list of seven important problems, titled the "Millennium Prize Problems", was published in 2000 . A solution to each of these problems carries a $1 million reward, and only one (the Riemann hypothesis) is duplicated in Hilbert's problems . </P>

Who was the first person to invent math