The proof by Russian mathematician Grigori Perelman of PoincarÃ© Conjecture first presented in 2002 and subsequently confirmed by fellow mathematicians has been hailed as the scientific breakthrough of 2006 by the international journal Science. Among the earliest groups seeking to verify the proof were mathematicians participating in ICTP’s Summer School and Conference on Geometry and Topology of 3-Manifolds, held in June 2005. Perelman also received the Fields Medal, mathematics’ most prestigious award, for his discovery. But the iconoclast mathematician refused to attend the awards ceremony held at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Madrid in August 2006.