{"id":752,"date":"2016-02-17T20:03:23","date_gmt":"2016-02-18T01:03:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/beyondreviews\/?p=752"},"modified":"2018-03-14T08:29:07","modified_gmt":"2018-03-14T13:29:07","slug":"keep-good-company","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/beyondreviews\/2016\/02\/17\/keep-good-company\/","title":{"rendered":"Keep Good Company"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo

Lars Ahlfors Fields Medalist and Reviewer for MR<\/p><\/div>\n

Over the course of Mathematical Reviews’ 75-year history, there have been many famous\u00a0researchers who were also active reviewers. \u00a0As pointed out by Norman Richert in his article Mathematical Reviews Celebrates 75 Years<\/a>, the first issue of Mathematical Reviews<\/em> (in January 1940) had some prominent mathematicians as reviewers, including: Lars Ahlfors, Richard Courant, Paul Erd\u0151s, Einar Hille, Alston S. Householder, D. H. Lehmer, Saunders Mac\u00a0Lane, George P\u00f3lya, and John von Neumann. \u00a0The complete roster is here<\/a>. \u00a0Fortunately for Mathematical Reviews,<\/em>\u00a0many prominent mathematicians have written reviews – sometimes a lot of reviews – over the years. \u00a0\u00a0This post lists\u00a0some award-winning mathematicians and gives links to\u00a0their reviews. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Fields Medalists<\/em><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Medalist<\/strong><\/td>\n# of Reviews<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Michael Francis ATIYAH<\/a><\/td>\n229<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Pierre-Louis LIONS<\/a><\/td>\n218<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Lars Valerian AHLFORS<\/a><\/td>\n170<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Laurent SCHWARTZ<\/a><\/td>\n100<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
C\u00e9dric VILLANI<\/a><\/td>\n98<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Gerd FALTINGS<\/a><\/td>\n76<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Jean BOURGAIN<\/a><\/td>\n40<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Alain CONNES<\/a><\/td>\n25<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Vaughan F.R. JONES<\/a><\/td>\n24<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Heisuke HIRONAKA<\/a><\/td>\n24<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Terence TAO<\/a><\/td>\n15<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Efim ZELMANOV<\/a><\/td>\n15<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
John Willard MILNOR<\/a><\/td>\n12<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

There are many fine examples of reviews by Fields Medalists. \u00a0They vary greatly in length. \u00a0Atiyah, for instance, was capable of getting to the essence of a paper in a few sentences<\/a>. \u00a0Other times, he gave details, such as in his review of Bott’s paper on the Borel-Weil-Bott theorem<\/a>. \u00a0His review of the paper by Kodaira, Nirenberg, and Spencer<\/a> on deformations of complex structures is telegraphic. \u00a0A surprising number of the reviews by Lions are just one, two, or three sentences, but still get the job done: 1<\/a>, 2<\/a>, 3<\/a>. \u00a0 Villani’s review of Golse and Saint-Raymond’s paper on the\u00a0Navier-Stokes limit of the Boltzmann equation<\/a> verges on being a short course. \u00a0Sometimes the important point is not what’s in the paper: Vaughan Jones reviews a paper by Uffe Haagerup<\/a>, telling us what is\u00a0not<\/em> used in the paper (automorphisms).<\/p>\n

Abel Prize Winners<\/em><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Year<\/strong><\/td>\nLaureate<\/strong><\/td>\n# of reviews<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2004<\/td>\nMichael Atiyah<\/a><\/td>\n229<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2007<\/td>\nSrinivasa Varadhan<\/a><\/td>\n105<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2009<\/td>\nMikhail Gromov<\/a><\/td>\n101<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2005<\/td>\nPeter Lax<\/a><\/td>\n60<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2010<\/td>\nJohn Tate<\/a><\/td>\n29<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2015<\/td>\nLouis Nirenberg<\/a><\/td>\n23<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2011<\/td>\nJohn Milnor<\/a><\/td>\n12<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Many of these prominent mathematicians wrote reviews of papers by other prominent mathematicians, such as Lax’s review of a paper by\u00a0G\u0227rding<\/a>\u00a0or Tate’s review of a paper by Iwasawa<\/a>. But John Milnor wrote a review of one of Don Porter’s only three papers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Winners of Other Prizes<\/em>(1)<\/a><\/sup><\/h3>\n

Abdus Salam<\/a>, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1979<\/a>, wrote over 100\u00a0reviews<\/a>. \u00a0For instance, he wrote the review of the original (1954) paper by Yang and Mills<\/a> that gave us Yang-Mills theory. \u00a0His review is a bit brief, and didn’t point out the amazing consequences this would have. \u00a0However, few others recognized the value of this paper\u00a0before 1960. \u00a0In 1972, t’Hooft and\u00a0Veltman worked out the renormalization for Yang-Mills<\/a>, which gave the theory a push and helped to earn\u00a0t’Hooft and Veltman a Nobel Prize.<\/p>\n

Subramanyan Chandrasekhar<\/a>, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1983<\/a>\u00a0wrote a lot of reviews<\/a>. \u00a0His first review<\/a> was in the second volume of Mathematical Reviews<\/em> on a paper (in German) by Walter Fricke.<\/p>\n

Peter Higgs<\/a>, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2013<\/a>, wrote roughly\u00a0100 reviews<\/a>. \u00a0Higgs is famous for his work on particle physics. \u00a0Yet he wrote plenty of reviews of papers on general relativity, for instance reviews of at least ten papers by Charles Misner, beginning with this paper<\/a>.<\/p>\n

(1) It is probably only in a blog about mathematics that Nobel Prizes would be described as “other prizes”.<\/h5>\n

Become a reviewer!<\/h3>\n

You don’t need to be a Fields Medalist, an Abel Prize Laureate, or a Nobel Laureate to write reviews. \u00a0The minimum requirement is that you are mathematically active. \u00a0 To find out more, you can\u00a0read\u00a0Reviewing for Mathematical Reviews<\/a>, by Michael A. Jones, published in MAA Focus<\/em>. \u00a0We also have a Guide for Reviewers<\/a>, which gets into the details.\u00a0 If you are interested in becoming a reviewer, contact us at mathrev@ams.org<\/a>. \u00a0We will be glad to hear from you, and you will be keeping very good company.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Over the course of Mathematical Reviews’ 75-year history, there have been many famous\u00a0researchers who were also active reviewers. \u00a0As pointed out by Norman Richert in his article Mathematical Reviews Celebrates 75 Years, the first issue of Mathematical Reviews (in January … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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