John F Nash Jr, the US mathematician and economist who was the subject of the 2001 movie A Beautiful Mind, has been named one of the winners of this year's Abel Prize in Mathematics.

Canadian-born mathematician, Louis Nirenberg, was named as the joint recipient of the prize by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.

Officials said the two "mathematical giants of the 20th century" had made breakthroughs which have become "essential tools for the study of non-linear partial differential equations".

Nash, 86, who was played in Ron Howard's Oscar-winning movie by Russell Crowe, is the author of a paper about game theory that helped him win the 1994 Nobel prize in economics.

Nirenberg, 90, has had "one of the longest and most feted careers in mathematics" with many results named after him and his collaborators.

The annual six million kroner award will be presented in Oslo on May 19.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.