Math and Poetry

Posted on April 20, 2013 by Maya Sharma

You might be aware that April is Mathematics Awareness Month (this year’s theme is ‘Mathematics of Sustainability’). April is also National Poetry Month, and while it might seem a funny coincidence that these two separate disciplines are celebrated at the same time, math and poetry have more in common than you might think. Continue reading →

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A Reply From Freeman Dyson

Posted on April 16, 2013 by Avery Carr


Dyson LastWhen I was an undergrad at the University of Memphis the awe of physics and  mathematics held my interests firmly.   I would attend weekly seminars in physics that were furnished with nice refreshments.   Whether it would be a crisp cookie or a slice of pizza, hunger would cease and my listening turned to thoughts about mathematical applications in physics.

This is not readily intuitive when one sees abstract pure mathematics for the first time.  “How is this applied?” is the usual question.  After some time this inquiry may evaporate when one finds established applications in engineering, operations research, and the like.   However, in considering the applications of mathematics in physics there are few with as much insight as the theoretical and mathematical physicist Freeman Dyson.

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Book Review: A Technique for Producing Ideas (or Five Steps Towards a Dissertation)

Posted on April 12, 2013 by Derek Smith

booksIf you don’t have time for a story, I can summarize this post in three words: Keep a journal. Otherwise, continue reading and pick up a copy of A Technique for Producing Ideas by James Webb Young. It’s a short, worthwhile read for anyone involved in a creative pursuit. Or for anyone writing a dissertation. (Hopefully you apply the “creative” label to your dissertation work!)

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Follow the Yellow Brick Road!

Posted on April 3, 2013 by Samantha Tyner

From what I have gathered in my first one and two-thirds semesters of graduate school, beginning a graduate program in statistics is a lot different than beginning a graduate program in mathematics. First, all students in their first year of the stats PhD program (at least at Iowa State) get lumped into one big group and take 5 of their first 6 classes together, but we all come from very diverse educational backgrounds.  Only about half of us came straight from undergrad (and only some of us majored in statistics), some entered the working world for some time after getting a Bachelor’s and are returning for a Master’s and/or PhD, some have Master’s degrees in Math, some started a PhD or Master’s program elsewhere, and then transferred, etc.  So, we all have differing levels of abilities when it comes to statistics. Continue reading →

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Some poetry

Posted on April 3, 2013 by Jean Joseph

A translated poem by mathematician Omar Khayyam from The Rubaiyat:

XXVI
Why, all the Saints and Sages who discuss’d
Of the Two Worlds so wisely–they are thrust
Like foolish Prophets forth; their Words to Scorn
Are scatter’d, and their Mouths are stopt with Dust.

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