“The truth is the methods I used were not any more sophisticated than I could certainly do as an undergraduate,”
- #wikipedia
- #quote
- #trusted-source
- #www.theguardian.com
- #corroborated
Figure timeline
Andrew Wiles
Sir Andrew John Wiles is an English mathematician and a Royal Society Research Professor at the University of Oxford, specialising in number theory. He is best known for proving Fermat's Last Theorem, for which he was awarded the 2016 Abel Prize and the 2017 Copley Medal and for which he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2000. In 2018, Wiles was appointed the f…
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
science · British mathematician who proved Fermat's Last Theorem · mathematician · university teacher · also Andrew Wiles, Sir Andrew John Wiles, Andrew John Wiles, Andrew J. Wiles, Dr. Andrew Wiles, Prof. Sir Andrew Wiles FRS
Born 11 April 1953 · Q184433
50 published statements · 0 followers
See & hear
Photos & media
3 photos
Media from Wikimedia Commons, hotlinked at the source under its own licence — see each file for author and terms.
Live now
In the news
Pulling headlines from trusted outlets — this usually takes a few seconds
Checking the wires…
Feed scan
These are live links, not archived citations — they only join the timeline once a collect run verifies and archives them.
Live pulse
Recent highlights
Most recent outstanding titles, awards, and quotes
- Quote
- Quote
It was the most famous popular problem in mathematics, although I didn’t know that at the time. What amazed me was that there were some unsolved problems that someone who was 10 years old could understand and even try. And I tried it throughout my teenage years. When I first went to college I thought I had a proof, but it turned out to be wrong,
85%The Guardian
2026· 3 entries
“It was the most famous popular problem in mathematics, although I didn’t know that at the time. What amazed me was that there were some unsolved problems that someone who was 10 years old could understand and even try. And I tried it throughout my teenage years. When I first went to college I thought I had a proof, but it turned out to be wrong,”
- #wikipedia
- #quote
- #trusted-source
- #www.theguardian.com
- #corroborated
“impossible to actually prove”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
2021· 1 entry
Said he trusted the letters, yet he could not remember a time when he did not enjoy solving mathematical problems
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2019· 1 entry
Won De Morgan Medal (2019).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #trophy
- #achievement
2018· 2 entries
Awarded Regius Professor of Mathematics (2018).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
Wiles was appointed the first Regius Professor of Mathematics at Oxford
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2017· 2 entries
Won Copley Medal (2017).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #trophy
- #achievement
Wiles won the Copley Medal
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2016· 3 entries
Awarded Abel Prize for Modular Elliptic Curves and Fermat's Last Theorem (2016).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
Upon receiving the Abel Prize, Wiles said about his proof of Fermat's Last Theorem, "The methods that solved it opened up a new way of attacking one of the big webs of conjectures of contemporary mathematics called the L
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Wiles reflected on his legacy, expressing his belief that he did not just prove Fermat's Last Theorem, but pushed the whole of mathematics as a field towards the Langlands program of unifying number theory
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2011· 1 entry
Wiles rejoined the University of Oxford as Royal Society Research Professor
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2005· 2 entries
Awarded Shaw Prize (2005).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
Awarded The Shaw Prize in Mathematical Sciences (2005).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
2004· 1 entry
Wiles won the Premio Pitagora
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2000· 1 entry
Was awarded Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1999· 5 entries
Awarded Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (1999).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
Awarded Clay Research Award (1999).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
Three of his former students, Richard Taylor, Brian Conrad, and Fred Diamond, working with Christophe Breuil, built upon Wiles's proof to prove the full modularity theorem
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
The year the asteroid 9999 Wiles was named after him
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
That he came across Fermat's Last Theorem on his way home from school when he was 10 years old
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1998· 2 entries
Awarded King Faisal International Prize in Science (1998).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
Wiles was awarded a silver plaque from the International Mathematical Union recognising his achievements, in place of the Fields Medal, which is restricted to those under the age of 40 (Wiles was 41 when he proved the th
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1997· 4 entries
Awarded Cole Prize (1997).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
Awarded MacArthur Fellows Program (1997).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
Awarded Cole Prize in Number Theory (1997).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
And was elected member of the American Philosophical Society that year
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1996· 3 entries
Won Royal Medal (1996).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #trophy
- #achievement
Awarded Ostrowski Prize (1996).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
Awarded Maryam Mirzakhani Prize in Mathematics (1996).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
1995· 3 entries
Awarded Rolf Schock Prize in Mathematics (1995).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
Awarded Fermat Prize (1995).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
Was awarded the Schock Prize, Fermat Prize, and Wolf Prize in Mathematics that year
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1994· 1 entry
Wiles was elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1993· 1 entry
“s last theorem. He was wrong. By December of that year, he had to admit that his argument did not seem to work for the”
- #wikipedia
- #quote
- #trusted-source
- #www.theguardian.com
- #corroborated
1989· 3 entries
Awarded Fellow of the Royal Society (1989).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
Was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS)
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Wiles was elected to the Royal Society
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1988· 3 entries
Awarded Whitehead Prize (1988).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
Wiles married Nada Canaan, a Princeton student who obtained her Ph
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Wiles was awarded the Junior Whitehead Prize of the London Mathematical Society (1988)
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1986· 1 entry
Upon reading Ken Ribet's seminal work on Fermat's Last Theorem, Wiles set out to prove the modularity theorem for semistable elliptic curves, which implied Fermat's Last Theorem
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1981· 1 entry
Wiles became a Professor of Mathematics at Princeton University
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1980· 2 entries
Studied at University of Cambridge, Doctor of Philosophy (1980).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #education
Wiles earned a PhD while at Clare College, Cambridge
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1974· 3 entries
Worked on unifying Galois representations, elliptic curves and modular forms, starting with Barry Mazur's generalizations of Iwasawa theory
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Wiles earned his bachelor's degree in mathematics at Merton College, Oxford
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Studied at Merton College, bachelor's degree (1971–1974).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #education
1953· 1 entry
Born 1953-04-11.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #birth