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Prof Simon Donaldson of Imperial College, London, wins 1.8 million pound prize #Maths

Donaldson one of five to win most lucrative mathematics prize ever established

Simon Donaldson received the ‘Breakthrough’ $3m (£1.8m) prize and trophy for “new revolutionary invariants of four-dimensional manifolds”.

The Breakthrough prize in mathematics was established by Mark Zuckerberg (founder of Facebook) and Yuri Milner (internet entrepreneur) to encourage more widespread interest in the areas of science and mathematics.

In a Guardian interview Donaldson said of his win: “I was quite taken aback. I haven’t had any time to think what I’ll do with the money. It’s hard to say what impact the prizes will have because they are so new. But one hopes they’ll increase the prominence of the subject in general.”