nash

File photo: Nobel Prize winning mathematician John Nash (right) and his wife Alicia sit on a coach inside their inside their West Windsor home in 2009. Nash, a senior research mathematician at Princeton University, was portrayed by actor Russell Crow in the movie "A Beautiful Mind."

(John O'Boyle)

PRINCETON — A Princeton University mathematician, who was the subject of the acclaimed film "A Beautiful Mind," was awarded the $800,000 Abel Prize, school officials announced Wednesday.

John Forbes Nash Jr., 86, a senior research mathematician at Princeton, received the prize from the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters for his work on partial differential equations, used to describe the basic laws of science. The award, established 12 years ago, is described as "one of the most prestigious in the field of mathematics" by the organization.

Nash, the second consecutive Princeton researcher to receive the honor, shares the prize with longtime colleague Louis Nirenberg, a 90-year-old retired professor from New York University's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences.

"Their breakthroughs have developed into versatile and robust techniques, which have become essential tools for the study of nonlinear partial differential equations," the academy said in a statement.

Princeton's Yakov G. Sinai, a Russian math professor, was awarded the prize last year.

The university planned to hold a ceremony on campus Wednesday to honor Nash, a West Windsor resident.

Nash, a West Virginia native, won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1994, the year before he joined the Princeton mathematics department as a senior research mathematician. He is best known for his work in game theory, portrayed in the 2001 film "A Beautiful Mind," in which actor Russell Crowe played Nash.

Early in the film, Nash begins to develop paranoid schizophrenia, a disease that has plagued Nash most of his adult life.

Nash and Nirenberg will accept the prize from King Harald V of Norway during a ceremony in Oslo on May 19.

Nicole Mulvaney may be reached at nmulvaney@njtimes.com. Follow her on Twitter @NicoleMulvaney. Find The Times of Trenton on Facebook.