Although the Fields Medal does not have the same public recognition as the Nobel Prizes, they share a similar intellectual standing. It is restricted to one field -- that of mathematics. The medal is awarded to the best mathematicians who are 40 or younger, every four years.A list of Fields Medallists and their contributions provides a bird's-eye view of the major developments in mathematics over the past 80 years. It highlights the areas in which, at various times, the greatest progress has been made.The third edition of Fields Medallists' Lectures features additional contributions from: John W Milnor (1962), Enrico Bombieri (1974), Gerd Faltings (1986), Andrei Okounkov (2006), Terence Tao (2006), Cédric Villani (2010), Elon Lindenstrauss (2010), Ngô Bao Châu (2010), Stanislav Smirnov (2010).