Argentine Luis Caffarelli received the Abel Prize, deemed the "Nobel Prize of Mathematics".

The award was handed by the Norwegian Academy of Sciences and Letters, for his work in partial differential equations.

The scientist born in Buenos Aires in 1948, currently teaches at the University of Texas.

He was bestowed the distinction by Norway's King, Harald V.

"It is a meaningful recognition and I am very grateful to the Academy and the Committee," said Caffarelli as he accepted the award at the School of Law of the University of Oslo.

The ceremony was attended by the head of the Academy, Lise
Øvreås, the chairman of the Abel Prize Committee, Helge Holden, Argentina's Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Daniel Filmus
and the Norwegian Minister of Education and Research, Ola Boris.

"I would like to express my deep gratitude to the institutions that supported me in my career, among them the Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires High School and the University of Buenos Aires", said the mathematician, the first South American to receive the award.

In his 50-year career, Caffarelli has carried out more than 130 collaborations and advised more than 30 PhD students.

His work and ideas are cited in nearly 19,000 papers and articles.

He has now added to his career the Abel Prize, which has been awarded since 2002 and pays 7.5 million Norwegian kroner (about 676,500 euros).

"I was inspired by the elegance of mathematics and its ability to solve problems, with the power to transform the world as the universal language it is", said Caffarelli during the ceremony.

Differential equations are tools used by scientists to predict the behaviour of the physical world and appear as laws of nature to describe phenomena as different as the flow of water or the growth of populations, the Norwegian Academy said in a statement.