A U.S. institute hasn't yet coaxed Grigory Perelman out of his apartment to accept a $1 million prize, but billionaire Viktor Vekselberg would like to do one better: convince the reclusive St. Petersburg mathematician to work in Russia's "Silicon Valley."
Vekselberg is looking for talented scientists after President Dmitry Medvedev appointed him late last month to oversee the creation of the Skolkovo innovation center in the Moscow region.
The project, which the Kremlin has pushed as its answer to the United States' Silicon Valley, is a key point in Medvedev's program to diversify the economy through investment in innovation.
"Our project is open to all talented and enterprising people and offers an opportunity to work," Vekselberg said in an interview with LifeNews.ru.
"Everyone is welcome to participate — and Grigory Perelman in particular," he said.
Perelman, 43, made headlines last month when the private U.S. Clay Mathematics Institute announced that it had decided to award him $1 million for proving a theorem about the nature of multidimensional space and was waiting for him to accept the money. The institute's head said Perelman had told him that he would need to think about it.
Perelman, who has previously expressed a lack of interest in money and fame, did not accept a prestigious math award at a ceremony in Madrid in 2006, preferring instead to stay at home with his elderly mother in the outskirts of St. Petersburg.
Vekselberg acknowledged that it might be difficult to attract Perelman to the Skolkovo team.
"Everything will depend on his wishes," he said.