Alexander Grothendieck Heng Li
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Why U.S. Immigration Barriers Matter for the Global Advancement of Science
DISCUSSION PAPER SERIES IZA DP No. 14016 Why U.S. Immigration Barriers Matter for the Global Advancement of Science Ruchir Agarwal Ina Ganguli Patrick Gaulé Geoff Smith JANUARY 2021 DISCUSSION PAPER SERIES IZA DP No. 14016 Why U.S. Immigration Barriers Matter for the Global Advancement of Science Ruchir Agarwal Patrick Gaulé International Monetary Fund University of Bath and IZA Ina Ganguli Geoff Smith University of Massachusetts Amherst University of Bath JANUARY 2021 Any opinions expressed in this paper are those of the author(s) and not those of IZA. Research published in this series may include views on policy, but IZA takes no institutional policy positions. The IZA research network is committed to the IZA Guiding Principles of Research Integrity. The IZA Institute of Labor Economics is an independent economic research institute that conducts research in labor economics and offers evidence-based policy advice on labor market issues. Supported by the Deutsche Post Foundation, IZA runs the world’s largest network of economists, whose research aims to provide answers to the global labor market challenges of our time. Our key objective is to build bridges between academic research, policymakers and society. IZA Discussion Papers often represent preliminary work and are circulated to encourage discussion. Citation of such a paper should account for its provisional character. A revised version may be available directly from the author. ISSN: 2365-9793 IZA – Institute of Labor Economics Schaumburg-Lippe-Straße 5–9 Phone: +49-228-3894-0 53113 Bonn, Germany Email: [email protected] www.iza.org IZA DP No. 14016 JANUARY 2021 ABSTRACT Why U.S. -
The Work of Grigory Perelman
The work of Grigory Perelman John Lott Grigory Perelman has been awarded the Fields Medal for his contributions to geom- etry and his revolutionary insights into the analytical and geometric structure of the Ricci flow. Perelman was born in 1966 and received his doctorate from St. Petersburg State University. He quickly became renowned for his work in Riemannian geometry and Alexandrov geometry, the latter being a form of Riemannian geometry for metric spaces. Some of Perelman’s results in Alexandrov geometry are summarized in his 1994 ICM talk [20]. We state one of his results in Riemannian geometry. In a short and striking article, Perelman proved the so-called Soul Conjecture. Soul Conjecture (conjectured by Cheeger–Gromoll [2] in 1972, proved by Perelman [19] in 1994). Let M be a complete connected noncompact Riemannian manifold with nonnegative sectional curvatures. If there is a point where all of the sectional curvatures are positive then M is diffeomorphic to Euclidean space. In the 1990s, Perelman shifted the focus of his research to the Ricci flow and its applications to the geometrization of three-dimensional manifolds. In three preprints [21], [22], [23] posted on the arXiv in 2002–2003, Perelman presented proofs of the Poincaré conjecture and the geometrization conjecture. The Poincaré conjecture dates back to 1904 [24]. The version stated by Poincaré is equivalent to the following. Poincaré conjecture. A simply-connected closed (= compact boundaryless) smooth 3-dimensional manifold is diffeomorphic to the 3-sphere. Thurston’s geometrization conjecture is a far-reaching generalization of the Poin- caré conjecture. It says that any closed orientable 3-dimensional manifold can be canonically cut along 2-spheres and 2-tori into “geometric pieces” [27]. -
Alexander Grothendieck: a Country Known Only by Name Pierre Cartier
Alexander Grothendieck: A Country Known Only by Name Pierre Cartier To the memory of Monique Cartier (1932–2007) This article originally appeared in Inference: International Review of Science, (inference-review.com), volume 1, issue 1, October 15, 2014), in both French and English. It was translated from French by the editors of Inference and is reprinted here with their permission. An earlier version and translation of this Cartier essay also appeared under the title “A Country of which Nothing is Known but the Name: Grothendieck and ‘Motives’,” in Leila Schneps, ed., Alexandre Grothendieck: A Mathematical Portrait (Somerville, MA: International Press, 2014), 269–88. Alexander Grothendieck died on November 19, 2014. The Notices is planning a memorial article for a future issue. here is no need to introduce Alexander deepening of the concept of a geometric point.1 Such Grothendieck to mathematicians: he is research may seem trifling, but the metaphysi- one of the great scientists of the twenti- cal stakes are considerable; the philosophical eth century. His personality should not problems it engenders are still far from solved. be confused with his reputation among In its ultimate form, this research, Grothendieck’s Tgossips, that of a man on the margin of society, proudest, revolved around the concept of a motive, who undertook the deliberate destruction of his or pattern, viewed as a beacon illuminating all the work, or at any rate the conscious destruction of incarnations of a given object through their various his own scientific school, even though it had been ephemeral cloaks. But this concept also represents enthusiastically accepted and developed by first- the point at which his incomplete work opened rank colleagues and disciples. -
Learning from Fields Medal Winners
TechTrends DOI 10.1007/s11528-015-0011-6 COLUMN: RETHINKING TECHNOLOGY & CREATIVITY IN THE 21ST CENTURY Creativity in Mathematics and Beyond – Learning from Fields Medal Winners Rohit Mehta1 & Punya Mishra1 & Danah Henriksen2 & the Deep-Play Research Group # Association for Educational Communications & Technology 2016 For mathematicians, mathematics—like music, poetry, advanced mathematics through their work in areas as special- or painting—is a creative art. All these arts involve— ized and diverse as dynamical systems theory, the geometry of and indeed require—a certain creative fire. They all numbers, stochastic partial differential equations, and the dy- strive to express truths that cannot be expressed in ordi- namical geometry of Reimann surfaces. nary everyday language. And they all strive towards An award such as the Fields Medal is a recognition of beauty — Manjul Bhargava (2014) sustained creative effort of the highest caliber in a challenging Your personal life, your professional life, and your cre- domain, making the recipients worthy of study for scholars ative life are all intertwined — Skylar Grey interested in creativity. In doing so, we continue a long tradi- tion in creativity research – going all the way back to Galton in Every 4 years, the International Mathematical Union rec- the 19th century – of studying highly accomplished individ- ognizes two to four individuals under the age of 40 for their uals to better understand the nature of the creative process. We achievements in mathematics. These awards, known as the must point out that the focus of creativity research has shifted Fields Medal, have often been described as the “mathemati- over time, moving from an early dominant focus on genius, cian’s Nobel Prize” and serve both a form of peer-recognition towards giftedness in the middle of the 20th century, to a more of highly influential and creative mathematical work, as well contemporary emphasis on originality of thought and work as an encouragement of future achievement. -
The Materiality & Ontology of Digital Subjectivity
THE MATERIALITY & ONTOLOGY OF DIGITAL SUBJECTIVITY: GRIGORI “GRISHA” PERELMAN AS A CASE STUDY IN DIGITAL SUBJECTIVITY A Thesis Submitted to the Committee on Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the Faculty of Arts and Science TRENT UNIVERSITY Peterborough, Ontario, Canada Copyright Gary Larsen 2015 Theory, Culture, and Politics M.A. Graduate Program September 2015 Abstract THE MATERIALITY & ONTOLOGY OF DIGITAL SUBJECTIVITY: GRIGORI “GRISHA” PERELMAN AS A CASE STUDY IN DIGITAL SUBJECTIVITY Gary Larsen New conditions of materiality are emerging from fundamental changes in our ontological order. Digital subjectivity represents an emergent mode of subjectivity that is the effect of a more profound ontological drift that has taken place, and this bears significant repercussions for the practice and understanding of the political. This thesis pivots around mathematician Grigori ‘Grisha’ Perelman, most famous for his refusal to accept numerous prestigious prizes resulting from his proof of the Poincaré conjecture. The thesis shows the Perelman affair to be a fascinating instance of the rise of digital subjectivity as it strives to actualize a new hegemonic order. By tracing first the production of aesthetic works that represent Grigori Perelman in legacy media, the thesis demonstrates that there is a cultural imperative to represent Perelman as an abject figure. Additionally, his peculiar abjection is seen to arise from a challenge to the order of materiality defended by those with a vested interest in maintaining the stability of a hegemony identified with the normative regulatory power of the heteronormative matrix sustaining social relations in late capitalism. -
Group Knowledge and Mathematical Collaboration: a Philosophical Examination of the Classification of Finite Simple Groups
Group Knowledge and Mathematical Collaboration: A Philosophical Examination of the Classification of Finite Simple Groups Joshua Habgood-Coote and Fenner Stanley Tanswell Forthcoming in Episteme, please refer to final version. Abstract In this paper we apply social epistemology to mathematical proofs and their role in mathematical knowledge. The most famous modern collaborative mathematical proof effort is the Classification of Finite Simple Groups. The history and sociology of this proof have been well-documented by Alma Steingart (2012), who highlights a number of surprising and unusual features of this collaborative endeavour that set it apart from smaller-scale pieces of mathematics. These features raise a number of interesting philosophical issues, but have received very little attention. In this paper, we will consider the philosophical tensions that Steingart uncovers, and use them to argue that the best account of the epistemic status of the Classification Theorem will be essentially and ineliminably social. This forms part of the broader argument that in order to understand mathematical proofs, we must appreciate their social aspects. 1 Introduction Popular conceptions of mathematics are gripped by the myth of the ‘lone genius’. This myth is inspired by famous figures like Andrew Wiles, Grigori Perelman, and Srinivasa Ramanujan whose individual efforts are taken to be both representative and exemplary. In this paper, we push back against this individualistic view of how mathematics is and should be practiced, examining the significance of social and group level features of mathematical practices. In particular, we will discuss the epistemology of mathematics, and argue that in order to understand mathematics and its epistemology, we need to pay attention to collaboration, group knowledge, and other social factors. -
Fundamental Theorems in Mathematics
SOME FUNDAMENTAL THEOREMS IN MATHEMATICS OLIVER KNILL Abstract. An expository hitchhikers guide to some theorems in mathematics. Criteria for the current list of 243 theorems are whether the result can be formulated elegantly, whether it is beautiful or useful and whether it could serve as a guide [6] without leading to panic. The order is not a ranking but ordered along a time-line when things were writ- ten down. Since [556] stated “a mathematical theorem only becomes beautiful if presented as a crown jewel within a context" we try sometimes to give some context. Of course, any such list of theorems is a matter of personal preferences, taste and limitations. The num- ber of theorems is arbitrary, the initial obvious goal was 42 but that number got eventually surpassed as it is hard to stop, once started. As a compensation, there are 42 “tweetable" theorems with included proofs. More comments on the choice of the theorems is included in an epilogue. For literature on general mathematics, see [193, 189, 29, 235, 254, 619, 412, 138], for history [217, 625, 376, 73, 46, 208, 379, 365, 690, 113, 618, 79, 259, 341], for popular, beautiful or elegant things [12, 529, 201, 182, 17, 672, 673, 44, 204, 190, 245, 446, 616, 303, 201, 2, 127, 146, 128, 502, 261, 172]. For comprehensive overviews in large parts of math- ematics, [74, 165, 166, 51, 593] or predictions on developments [47]. For reflections about mathematics in general [145, 455, 45, 306, 439, 99, 561]. Encyclopedic source examples are [188, 705, 670, 102, 192, 152, 221, 191, 111, 635]. -
The Top Mathematics Award
Fields told me and which I later verified in Sweden, namely, that Nobel hated the mathematician Mittag- Leffler and that mathematics would not be one of the do- mains in which the Nobel prizes would The Top Mathematics be available." Award Whatever the reason, Nobel had lit- tle esteem for mathematics. He was Florin Diacuy a practical man who ignored basic re- search. He never understood its impor- tance and long term consequences. But Fields did, and he meant to do his best John Charles Fields to promote it. Fields was born in Hamilton, Ontario in 1863. At the age of 21, he graduated from the University of Toronto Fields Medal with a B.A. in mathematics. Three years later, he fin- ished his Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins University and was then There is no Nobel Prize for mathematics. Its top award, appointed professor at Allegheny College in Pennsylvania, the Fields Medal, bears the name of a Canadian. where he taught from 1889 to 1892. But soon his dream In 1896, the Swedish inventor Al- of pursuing research faded away. North America was not fred Nobel died rich and famous. His ready to fund novel ideas in science. Then, an opportunity will provided for the establishment of to leave for Europe arose. a prize fund. Starting in 1901 the For the next 10 years, Fields studied in Paris and Berlin annual interest was awarded yearly with some of the best mathematicians of his time. Af- for the most important contributions ter feeling accomplished, he returned home|his country to physics, chemistry, physiology or needed him. -
17 Oct 2019 Sir Michael Atiyah, a Knight Mathematician
Sir Michael Atiyah, a Knight Mathematician A tribute to Michael Atiyah, an inspiration and a friend∗ Alain Connes and Joseph Kouneiher Sir Michael Atiyah was considered one of the world’s foremost mathematicians. He is best known for his work in algebraic topology and the codevelopment of a branch of mathematics called topological K-theory together with the Atiyah-Singer index theorem for which he received Fields Medal (1966). He also received the Abel Prize (2004) along with Isadore M. Singer for their discovery and proof of the index the- orem, bringing together topology, geometry and analysis, and for their outstanding role in building new bridges between mathematics and theoretical physics. Indeed, his work has helped theoretical physicists to advance their understanding of quantum field theory and general relativity. Michael’s approach to mathematics was based primarily on the idea of finding new horizons and opening up new perspectives. Even if the idea was not validated by the mathematical criterion of proof at the beginning, “the idea would become rigorous in due course, as happened in the past when Riemann used analytic continuation to justify Euler’s brilliant theorems.” For him an idea was justified by the new links between different problems which it illuminated. Our experience with him is that, in the manner of an explorer, he adapted to the landscape he encountered on the way until he conceived a global vision of the setting of the problem. Atiyah describes here 1 his way of doing mathematics2 : arXiv:1910.07851v1 [math.HO] 17 Oct 2019 Some people may sit back and say, I want to solve this problem and they sit down and say, “How do I solve this problem?” I don’t. -
Calculus Redux
THE NEWSLETTER OF THE MATHEMATICAL ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA VOLUME 6 NUMBER 2 MARCH-APRIL 1986 Calculus Redux Paul Zorn hould calculus be taught differently? Can it? Common labus to match, little or no feedback on regular assignments, wisdom says "no"-which topics are taught, and when, and worst of all, a rich and powerful subject reduced to Sare dictated by the logic of the subject and by client mechanical drills. departments. The surprising answer from a four-day Sloan Client department's demands are sometimes blamed for Foundation-sponsored conference on calculus instruction, calculus's overcrowded and rigid syllabus. The conference's chaired by Ronald Douglas, SUNY at Stony Brook, is that first surprise was a general agreement that there is room for significant change is possible, desirable, and necessary. change. What is needed, for further mathematics as well as Meeting at Tulane University in New Orleans in January, a for client disciplines, is a deep and sure understanding of diverse and sometimes contentious group of twenty-five fac the central ideas and uses of calculus. Mac Van Valkenberg, ulty, university and foundation administrators, and scientists Dean of Engineering at the University of Illinois, James Ste from client departments, put aside their differences to call venson, a physicist from Georgia Tech, and Robert van der for a leaner, livelier, more contemporary course, more sharply Vaart, in biomathematics at North Carolina State, all stressed focused on calculus's central ideas and on its role as the that while their departments want to be consulted, they are language of science. less concerned that all the standard topics be covered than That calculus instruction was found to be ailing came as that students learn to use concepts to attack problems in a no surprise. -
Ngô B O Châu
Ngô Bảo Châu The University of Chicago Department of Mathematics 5734 S. University Avenue Chicago, IL 60637-1514, USA (773) 702-7385 [email protected] http://math.uchicago.edu/ ngo EDUCATION PhD Mathematics 1992-1997 Universit´eParis Sud BS Mathematics and Computer Sciences 1990-1992 ENS Paris, Universit´ePierre et Maris Curie APPOINTMENTS Professor of Mathematics 2010-present University of Chicago Scientific Director 2011-present Vietnam Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics Long-term Member 2007-2010 Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton Professor 2004-2007 Universit´eParis Sud CNRS Fellow 1998-2004 Universit´eParis Nord OUTREACH C¡nh cûa mở rëng 2012-2016 Edition House Tr´ Book series edited in collaboration with Phan Vi»t. This book series contain 25 items translated from English and French. Ai và Ky ở xù sở cõa nhúng con sè tàng h¼nh 2013 Edition House Nh¢ Nam Math adventure book written in collaboration with Nguy¹n Phương V«n, more than 50K copies sold. Cùng Vi¸t Hi¸n Ph¡p 2012 Website Collection of journal papers on the process of amending Vietnam constitution in 2013. Work in collaboration with Đàm Thanh Sơn, Nguy¹n Anh Tu§n and Tr¦n Ki¶n. Học Th¸ Nào 2013 Website Collection of papers on education. Work in collaboration with Nguy¹n Phương V«n and L¶ Quý Hi¶n. Vietnam Education Dialogue 2014 Independent Research Groups on Higher Education Members of this independent research group include Đỗ Quèc Anh, Tr¦n Ngọc Anh, Vũ Thành Tự Anh, Ph¤m Hùng Hi»p, Ph¤m Ngọc Thng, Nguy¹n Phương V«n. -
Awards of ICCM 2013 by the Editors
Awards of ICCM 2013 by the Editors academies of France, Sweden and the United States. He is a recipient of the Fields Medal (1986), the Crafoord Prize Morningside Medal of Mathematics in Mathematics (1994), the King Faisal International Prize Selection Committee for Science (2006), and the Shaw Prize in Mathematical The Morningside Medal of Mathematics Selection Sciences (2009). Committee comprises a panel of world renowned mathematicians and is chaired by Professor Shing-Tung Björn Engquist Yau. A nomination committee of around 50 mathemati- Professor Engquist is the Computational and Applied cians from around the world nominates candidates based Mathematics Chair Professor at the University of Texas at on their research, qualifications, and curriculum vitae. Austin. His recent work includes homogenization theory, The Selection Committee reviews these nominations and multi-scale methods, and fast algorithms for wave recommends up to two recipients for the Morningside propagation. He is a member of the Royal Swedish Gold Medal of Mathematics, up to two recipients for the Morningside Gold Medal of Applied Mathematics, and up to four recipients for the Morningside Silver Medal of Mathematics. The Selection Committee members, with the exception of the committee chair, are all non-Chinese to ensure the independence, impartiality and integrity of the awards decision. Members of the 2013 Morningside Medal of Mathe- matics Selection Committee are: Richard E. Borcherds Professor Borcherds is Professor of Mathematics at the University of California at Berkeley. His research in- terests include Lie algebras, vertex algebras, and auto- morphic forms. He is best known for his work connecting the theory of finite groups with other areas in mathe- matics.