| I really think that Joseph Gotlieb - your first link - is grasping at straws. For brevity's sake I will address his first objection even though I feel others are just as shaky. [Objection #1: According to the interview, Gregory Perelman bristled at being addressed as "Grisha" by the media (Gregory/Grisha being similar to Robert/Robbie in familiarity). This could not possibly be true because he signed his own emails as "Grisha".] This is a pretty big stretch. The Russian language defines 3 tiers of familiarity/address: a nickname for family/friends, a full first name for acquaintances of the same age, and a full first + patronymic name for everyone else. (This is similar to a French person being offended by an overly familiar "Tu" when a "Vous" is appropriate). Moreover, it is not uncommon anywhere to use a nickname in correspondence with friends and colleagues and a full name in more formal situations. The forum discussion - your second link - is nothing more than a reference to Richard Feynman's auto biographical anecdote about the Nobel prize, followed by a bit of general bitching about journalists. One poster casts doubt on how Perelman and the interviewer connected (seems perfectly plausible to me that a Russian-Israeli journalist would connect to a Russian-Jewish scientist through his mom, whom he lives with, via the St. Petersburg jewish community). It really doesn't prove or even suggest anything of importance. As far the claim that Russian bloggers couldn't track down the person who interviewed Perelman, well, I just spent a minute on google and found this: http://cursorinfo.co.il/news/novosti/2011/04/28/zatwornil/. Apparently, the Israeli paper was able to find the interviewer... not particularly surprising given that he had moved to Israel in the 90's. |
Perelman signed his _papers_ "Grisha Perelman". That's about as formal an occasion for a mathematician as it gets. The paper is the claim for posterity. It's what the next generations of mathematicians will read. It's not impossible to imagine a mathematician who'd sign his mathematical papers as "Bob Green", but then be strongly offended by being so identified in the media, but it's very, very unlikely.
Also, "Grisha" is no more a nickname than "Bob" or "Bill" (that is, they all can be considered nicknames, but aren't usually what we mean by a nickname in its more common sense). They're familiar forms. It's not unheard of for a Russian scientist to adopt their familiar form as the preferential first name, even in formal situations, in English-language cultures. E.g. Misha Verbitsky, Sasha Razborov... you can easily google many more examples.
Obviously I disagree with you about the first link grasping at straws. In particular, mekhmat vs matmekh alone is damning. This difference between the names of the two most prestigious math departments in Moscow vs St. Petersburg is legendary. It's next to impossible for an alumnus of mekhmat to refer to his alma mater as matmekh or vice versa.
> Apparently, the Israeli paper was able to find the interviewer... not particularly surprising given that he had moved to Israel in the 90's.
They didn't find him in the sense that they weren't able to contact him, as they explain; I didn't mean to claim that the name or the person were nonexistent.