A Nigerian professor, Dr. Opeyemi Enoch has won a $1million prize for solving 156-year-old maths problem.



Dr. Enoch, an academic at the Federal University, Oye Ekiti, Ekiti State, has provided proof for the old Riemann Hypothesis, thereby solving a 156-year-old problem that has remained a knotty issue in mathematics. By this feat, Enoch has become the fourth scholar to resolve one of the seven Millennium Problems in Mathematics.

A statement from the university in Ado Ekiti on Sunday said Enoch’s presentation of the solution last Wednesday at the International Conference on Mathematics and Computer Science in Vienna, Austria, became more symbolic coming on the exact day and month 156 years after the problem was brought to light by a German mathematician in 1859.

The Riemann Zeta Hypothesis is one of the seven Millennium Problems set forth by the Clay Mathematics Institute with a million dollar reward for each solved problem for the past 16 years.

According to the statement, “Dr. Enoch first investigated and established the claims by Riemann. He went on to consider and correct the misconceptions that were communicated by mathematicians in past generations, thus paving the way for his solution and proof to be established.

“He also showed how other problems of this kind can be formulated and obtained the matrix that Hilbert and Poly predicted will give these undiscovered solutions. He revealed how these solutions are applicable in cryptography, quantum information science and in quantum computers.”

Three of the problems had been solved and the prizes given to the winners. This makes it the fourth to be solved of the seven problems.

¨The Kogi State-born scholar had previously worked on mathematical models and structures for generating electricity from sound, thunder and oceanic bodies.
He also once designed the prototype of a silo for peasant farmers and discovered a scientific technique for detecting and tracking someone on an evil mission.
In addition, Enoch has succeeded in inventing methods by which oil pipelines can be protected from vandalism and is currently working on mathematical approaches to climate change.