Russian refuses to accept math prize

This undated photo released by the International Mathematician Congress shows Grigori Perelman, from Russia, who was awarded with a prestigious Fields Medal at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Madrid, Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2006. Perelman, a reclusive Russian genius who says he's cracked one of history's toughest math problems won the equivalent of a Nobel prize Tuesday, but refused to accept it _ a stunning renunciation of accolades from the top minds in his field. Perelman, a 40-year-old native of St. Petersburg, was praised for work that might help scientists figure out the shape of the universe. But besides shunning the medal, colleagues say he also seems uninterested in a separate, million-dollar prize he might be due over his feat of wizardry: proving a theorem about the nature of multidimensional space that has stumped very smart people for 100 years. (AP Photo/International Mathematicians Congress)