Last week, Dr. Grigori Perelman, a Russian mathematician who showed his genius by solving the Poincare Conjecture, refused the Fields Medal -- the most prestigious award in mathematics -- as well as the million-dollar prize offered by the Clay Mathematics Institute for the solution of this intriguing puzzle. His reason? He did not want his work to be about personal fame, but about the math. This was not the first time he had done this -- he had previously turned down a prize from the European Mathematical Society.

This is not the first time that a researcher has refused an award of this magnitude. In 1965, the physicist Richard Feynman was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his ground-breaking work in quantum electrodynamics. He was going to refuse the award because it would be too much of a hassle, although he eventually relented and accepted the prize because he realized that refusing it would create even bigger hassles for him.

And just one year earlier, the writer Jean-Paul Sartre declined the 1964 Nobel Prize for Literature, stating that he did not wish to align himself with institutions.

Come on, guys. A Field Medal? A million bucks? A fricking Nobel Prize??? I'd accept any of them in a heartbeat! Okay, so that makes me an attention whore, so what? Could the accolades not be put to good use by drawing attention to whatever plight you're suffering?

We get it, fine, you don't want to become a "figurehead" of the big bad evil "institutions" with their self-serving "agendas" and political "manoeuverings." *YAWN* We're all really impressed.

Here's an idea. How about taking that million-dollar prize and contributing it to a charitable cause that works to make change? I mean seriously, whatever happened to the idea of effecting change from within?

Or would you rather sit back and ponder life's futility and meaninglessness while your million dollars sits, unclaimed and earning interest, in the coffers of the very institutions you claim to disavow.