“Mathematics are important in themselves because they defend a certain way of thinking based on rigor”

After receiving the 16th BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Basic Sciences, mathematician Claire Voisin reflects on the deeper meaning of algebraic geometry and the role that abstraction plays in our understanding of the world. Throughout the interview, she explains how her work has helped to unravel the structure of complex spaces and why she regards mathematics as an essential form of culture, comparable to art for its beauty and intellectual rigor. Offering an intimate glimpse into her own creative process, Voisin invites us to discover mathematics as a realm where rigor, intuition, and imagination come together.

The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Basic Sciences category has gone in this sixteenth edition to Professors Claire Voisin and Yakov Eliashberg, “for their outstanding contributions to two faces of geometry, algebraic and symplectic.”