Perel'man more dangerous than Osama bin Laden

Here is a quiz: Who looks like Rasputin, said to be the smartest mathematician on planet, solved the century old Poincare conjecture, refused the Fields Medal (the equivalent of a Nobel prize for mathematics) and the $1 million Clay prize, and has now given up mathematics?

The answer is Grigori Perel'man, born 1966 in St Petersburg (Leningrad).

The proof itself has been widely hailed, "In a speech at a conference in Beijing this summer, Shing-Tung Yau of Harvard said the understanding of three-dimensional space brought about by Poincaré’s conjecture could be one of the major pillars of math in the 21st century."

Now people are wondering why he refused both the prestigious Fields Medal and the $1 million dollar Clay prize. It is becoming a big puzzle. Speculations abound.

If you like the humorous side of the matter, please watch the 2 Youtube videos, "Life After Poincare: Grigori Perelman".
The story goes like this:
After giving up mathematics, Perel'man got bored, work in a doughnut shop (making use of his topology specialty), but he does not want to be paid, and unfortunately (for his boss) gives away the doughnuts for free. He then tried to be work in magic, to make use of his knowledge of wormholes, but he got disgusted when he saw that magicians work with tricks.
Then he met Sylvia Nasar (author of A Beautiful Mind) and Russell Crowe, who played the role of John Nash in the film. He got persuaded, but later he made Russell Crowe disappear into a wormhole, and was branded more dangerous than Osama bin Laden by Bush and the British.

Links:

• Wikipedia on Perel'man
• Wikipedia on the Poincare conjecture
• BBC: Maths genius declines top prize
• New York Times: Elusive Proof, Elusive Prover: A New Mathematical Mystery
• The New Yorker: Manifold Destiny. A legendary problem and the battle over who solved it. By Sylvia Nasar and David Gruber
• Slashdot: Mathematician Claims New Yorker Defamed Him
• Sciencemag: BREAKTHROUGH OF THE YEAR: The Poincaré Conjecture--Proved
• Youtube: Life After Poincare: Grigori Perelman (Part 1 of n)
• Youtube: Life After Poincare: Grigori Perelman (Part 2 of n)
• Youtube: Perel'man. The smartest mathematician on our planet.
• The Clay Mathematics Institute, Millennium Problems: Poincaré Conjecture