Niels Henrik Abel
Norway named the Abel Prize, first issued in 2003, for their brilliant mathematician, Niels Abel (1802-1829). While the value varies with the exchange rate, the prize is worth 6 million NK or about US $950,000. Earlier, Norway had issued a 500 kroner banknote in his honor.
Students of abstract algebra will recognize the name of "abelian" (or commutative) groups and should be encouraged to read of his struggles to have his work published. His pre-mature death in his twenty-sixth year was from malnutrition and tuberculosis.