Real Lives: Top award for a city academic who really counts

Capital resident Sir Michael Atiyah will jet off to Paris in October to collect the Grande Medaille of the Institut de France Academie des Sciences - the first mathematician to receive the accolade. The society of leading French scholars was founded in 1666.

The award, which was created 13 years ago, is annually bestowed on foreign scholars who have significantly contributed to the development of science in an influential way. It is the highest honour the society can award foreign members.

Previous recipients include American atmospheric chemist Susan Solomon, Nasa astronaut Ronald Evans, and cancer researcher Robert Weinberg.

In a long and distinguished career, the 81-year-old previously won the Fields Medal in 1966, and was jointly awarded the Abel Prize in 2004 with his collaborator Professor Isadore Singer. Their Atiyah-Singer index theorem is one of the landmark discoveries in mathematics.

Innovative Mr Atiyah has lived in the Grange area of Edinburgh for the last 13 years and was made an honorary professor at Edinburgh University soon after he moved up from Cambridge. He also held the coveted post of president of the Royal Society of Edinburgh from 2005 to 2008.

Mr Atiyah, who has been a member of the Institut de France Academie des Sciences for 30 years, said: "I think I'm the first mathematician to win the award so it's a huge honour and I'm very pleased.

"I have been involved with the society for a long time and I have lots of good friends and colleagues there.

"I am going to Paris in October for a formal dinner in a grand hall, where I will have to make a speech in French. My French is a little rusty but I'll polish it up beforehand."

Mr Atiyah, who lives with his wife Lily and has two children and three grand- children, learned last month that he would be a prize- winner.

"It was a surprise because I had no idea I was even being considered," he said. "I get awards every now and again but this one is rather special because the French can be quite choosy." As his wife is an Edinburgh native, Mr Atiyah moved to the Scottish capital after a stint as master of Trinity College in Cambridge. He was also chancellor of the University of Leicester from 1995 to 2005.

"My wife Lily was brought up in Edinburgh and it was only fair to bring her back," he said. "I like hills and in Edinburgh I can see hills wherever I look. I used to live in Cambridge, which is quite flat. But Edinburgh is a beautiful city, one of the finest in the UK.

"If you retire somewhere where you have worked for a long time, you are a has been. I like to move about."

Mr Atiyah, who was born in London of a Lebanese father and a Scottish mother, came to Edinburgh after a career that took him to Oxford, Princeton and Cambridge. He was schooled in Egypt before moving to England with his family at the age of 16.