This article mentions he recently won 3 million of some money. Does anyone have a link to the original Deligne paper that proves this, and could anyone give a basic rundown of how "counting points on related shapes, using a zeta function" can help to find zeroes for polynomials over finite fields, and count the solutions?
All the objects mentioned so far I understand and these seem fairly straightforward, is there a way to begin to talk about this method of counting solutions and why it works using elementary number theory, a little group theory, and a lot of hand waving? If so, please contribute an answer. Otherwise, downvote with gleeful fervor.