Mathematical Genius: Nigerian Professor Solves 150 Year Old Problem

Nigeria sometimes gets a bad reputation. You ask people about Nigeria and the first thing they think about is “African prince in Nigeria asking for money through email.”

But this is a different story.

Dr Opeyemi Enoch, a Nigerian scholar at the Federal University, Oye Ekiti (FUOYE) in Nigeria just became the 4th person to resolve one of the seven Millennium Problems in Mathematics. Dr Enoch solved the Riemann Zeta Hypothesis, which is one of the seven Millennium problems set forth by the Clay Mathematics Institute with a cash reward of $1 million for solving it.

He first investigated and then established the claims of Riemann. He then went on to correct the misconceptions that were communicated by Mathematicians in the past generations, thus paving way for his solutions and proofs to be established.

He presented his findings at the International Conference on Mathematics and Computer Science in Vienna.

Dr Enoch was first approached by some of his students to try his hands at the problem. Hesitant at first, he later obliged. The rest is history. And now, he’s $1 million richer.

Interestingly, Dr Enoch told the BBC that the students perhaps brought the question to him to solve, so they can go and claim the prize money since they were ‘pressed’.

It’s good to see stories like this. A lot of negative stories come from the Africa region. It’s nice to see that we have talent, especially mathematically geniuses, in Africa.