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Opinions expressed on these pages were the views of the writers and did not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the American Mathematical Society.
Category Archives: people in math
That Time Terence Tao Won $500 From Paul Erdős
Suppose you have some arbitrary sequence of 1 and -1, something like this 1, 1, -1, -1, -1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, -1, -1, …. And suppose you start plucking entries from fixed intervals and adding them together. For … Continue reading
In Praise of Teamwork
Part of what makes math blogging so interesting is that it helps to build connections between the people creating math and those consuming math. The evolution in math blogging and blossoming of math on twitter has done a great deal … Continue reading
Posted in Number Theory, people in math, Uncategorized
Tagged David Farmer, LMFDB, Terrence Tao
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John Urschel: Athlete, Mathlete
A few weeks ago, my social media world got pretty excited that Ravens offensive lineman John Urschel and his collaborators recently published a paper in the Journal of Computational Mathematics: “A Cascadic Multigrid Algorithm for Computing the Fiedler Vector of Graph Laplacians.” (That … Continue reading
Posted in Math Communication, people in math
Tagged John Urschel, linear algebra, sports
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The Social Side of Mathematics
Samantha Oestreicher is a recent Ph.D. in applied mathematics. She’s been blogging about social mathematics since 2007, but I only discovered her blog in December when she started a series of posts about math and tap dancing. She describes a … Continue reading
Posted in Applied Math, people in math
Tagged math and dance, mathematics and the arts, Samantha Oestreicher
1 Comment
Math and the Genius Myth
Earlier this month, Science published a paper about the genius myth and gender. It found that when academics in a field think their discipline requires a special innate talent, that field tends to attract fewer women. “We’re not saying women [or … Continue reading
Posted in people in math, women in math
Tagged Bethany Brookshire, Cathy O'Neil, genius, genius myth, innate talent, Izabella Laba, women in science
5 Comments
In Memoriam
Last week, I was shocked to learn of the unexpected death of Tim Cochran, a topologist from my grad school alma mater, Rice University. In addition to being a well-respected mathematician, he was an advocate for women and other underrepresented groups … Continue reading
e is for Ebola
A recent NPR blog features a few quotes emphasizing a math word that is lamentably absent from many readers’ vocabularies: “It’s spreading and growing exponentially,” President Obama said Tuesday. “This is a disease outbreak that is advancing in an exponential … Continue reading
Posted in Applied Math, Biomath, Math Education, Mathematics and Computing, people in math, Statistics
Tagged Amy Greer, Basic Reproduction Ratio, Caitlyn Rivers, computational epidemiology, David Hartley, Ebola, Effective Reproduction Ratio, Ellsworth Campbell, Exponential growth, IDEA, SIR model
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First Impressions of the Second Heidelberg Laureate Forum
Last year, I wrote with some envy about the first annual Heidelberg Laureate Forum. This year, I’m there! I mean, here! Yes, after several flights and a few train delays, I’m finally in Heidelberg, and if the fog clears and … Continue reading
Posted in Events, people in math
Tagged abel prize, fields medal, heidelberg laureate forum, hlf14, math, math communication, mathematics, prizes
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Making Conferences Easier for Families
Most mathematicians want to make mathematics, and especially mathematical academia, more hospitable to women. One way to do that is to help them participate as fully as possible in conferences, even when they have young children. Due to a sometimes … Continue reading
Posted in people in math, women in math
Tagged conferences, joint mathematics meetings, Jordan Ellenberg, Laura McLay, mathematics and parenthood, Matilde Lalin, terry tao
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Medaling Mathematicians
You may consider the Fields Medal a boon to the mathematical community as it showcases amazing young mathematicians and brings math into the limelight. Or you may view the Fields Medal as an unfortunate reinforcement of the notion that mathematics … Continue reading
Posted in Events, Math Education, Mathematics and the Arts, Number Theory, people in math, Theoretical Mathematics, Uncategorized, women in math
Tagged Awards in Math, fields medal, First Woman Winner of Fields Medal, International Congress of Mathematics
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