The definitive account of the Everests of mathematics--the seven unsolved problems that define the state of the art in contemporary math. In 2000, the Clay Foundation announced a historic competition: whoever could solve any of seven extraordinarily difficult mathematical problems, and have the solution acknowledged as correct by the experts, would receive $1 million in prize money. There was some precedent for doing this: In 1900 the mathematician David Hilbert proposed twenty-three problems that set much of the agenda for mathematics in the twentieth century. The Millennium Problems--chosen by a committee of the leading mathematicians in the world--are likely to acquire similar stature, and their solution (or lack of it) is likely to play a strong role in determining the course of mathematics in the twenty-first century. Keith Devlin, renowned expositor of mathematics and one of the authors of the Clay Institute's official description of the problems, here provides the definitive account for the mathematically interested reader.

基思·德夫林是斯坦福大學語言與信息研究中心行政主任，斯坦福大學數學係教授。他不僅與西濛定期為美國全國公共電颱的“周末版”節目撰寫稿件(在節目中他被稱作“數學小子”)，而且齣現在“說說國民”、“科學星期五”、“聽上去像是科學”、“就我們的知識所及”等節目中。他是25本著作、一張互動式CD光盤與75篇數學研究論文的作者。他是美國科學院數學科學教育委員會委員、美國科學促進會成員和世界經濟論壇成員。現居加利福尼亞州帕洛阿爾托市。