Article for LionJim

[Tom McAndrew]

I thought you might enjoy this article:

The Mysterious Disappearance of a Revolutionary Mathematician

Alexander Grothendieck was revered for revealing connections between seemingly unrelated realms. Then he dropped out of society.

www.newyorker.com

 

[LionJim]

Yeah, caught it, thanks just the same. It has some great lines.

Strange that it mentions that Grothendieck's advisor Laurent Schwartz was awarded a Fields Medal but does not mention that Grothendieck himself was awarded a Fields, too. Odd.

 

[Mr. Potter]

Great Article: This is one of the reasons that I am a fan of this website.

Shalom

 

[LionJim]

Great Article: This is one of the reasons that I am a fan of this website.

Shalom

The writer does a really good job of describing mathematical strategies in everyday language. Very cool.

 

[Woodpecker]

"Grothendieck recalled that as a child he loved rhymes, feeling that their sonic connections pointed to a mystery beyond words. For a time, he spoke exclusively in rhymes"

 

[IrishHerb]

One reason I keep coming over to the PSU board is that articles like this pop up from time to time. Its entertaining. No such things on the ND boards.

 

[Nits74]

Just read it last night. Very good.

 

[delcoLion]

A very interesting article and I recognized some of the names by recalling the NOVA show on Andrew Wiles and Fermat’s last theorem.

I love math but, I hate to admit, just don’t have enough IQ points. Never more than a C student, reached DiffEq but that was it. Couple of brothers who are engineers and straight As all the way.

 

[LionJim]

A very interesting article and I recognized some of the names by recalling the NOVA show on Andrew Wiles and Fermat’s last theorem.

I love math but, I hate to admit, just don’t have enough IQ points. Never more than a C student, reached DiffEq but that was it. Couple of brothers who are engineers and straight As all the way.

Math actually never came easy for me. When I went to Maryland I already had a MS (from Tennessee) and the grade in my first exam at UMd (in Algebraic Topology) was a 25. Every time before knocking on my advisor’s door I would say to myself, “Now, Jim, don’t be afraid of sounding like an idiot.”

I had the ability to write beautiful proofs in my classes but I didn’t have the creativity to do any research beyond my dissertation, which was just a calculation in homological algebra. When asked, I say that I have a doctorate in mathematics but try not to say that I’m a mathematician. Mathematicians create new mathematics; my dissertation was my one-off.

 

[Woodpecker]

Math actually never came easy for me. When I went to Maryland I already had a MS (from Tennessee) and the grade in my first exam at UMd (in Algebraic Topology) was a 25. Every time before knocking on my advisor’s door I would say to myself, “Now, Jim, don’t be afraid of sounding like an idiot.”

I had the ability to write beautiful proofs in my classes but I didn’t have the creativity to do any research beyond my dissertation, which was just a calculation in homological algebra. When asked, I say that I have a doctorate in mathematics but try not to say that I’m a mathematician. Mathematicians create new mathematics; my dissertation was my one-off.

That adds up

 

[LionJim]

That adds up