Math-Life Balance
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A podcast version of Mura Yakerson's YouTube channel Math-Life Balance. What Mura has to say about the content: In this podcast I post my non-professional interviews with professional mathematicians. I ask my colleagues about their personal experience in math, their struggles, and lifehacks. I hope that this shared experience would be helpful for other people in the math community, especially..
Math-Life Balance
6M ago
In this interview, Jeremiah Heller and Vesna Stojanoska share their experience of combining math and family life, discuss their ways to get over occasional demotivation in research and speak about social aspects of research. Jokes included!
Jeremiah's homepage: https://faculty.math.illinois.edu/~jbheller/
Vesna's homepage: https://faculty.math.illinois.edu/~vesna/
Mike Hopkins’ talk at Paul Goerss’ birthday conference: youtu.be/Ix4pg87LKVk
Chapters:
0:00 teaser
0:34 their family and other animals
4:04 kids’ curiosity about math
8:30 wishes for kids’ future
11:04 existential chat about adult ..read more
Math-Life Balance
6M ago
Dhruv Ranganathan is a lecturer at Cambridge University, working in algebraic geometry. In this video, Dhruv talks about doing research with undergrads, being tortured by math problems, looking for friends to write math papers, and other cool stuff!
Dhruv's webpage: https://www.dhruvrnathan.net
Photo: from the webpage
0:00 teaser
0:41 from cricket to air planes
2:16 adventure novels childhood
4:46 what do algebraic geometers do
8:39 experience of undergrad research
12:30 how undergrad research really works
15:35 “now I’m a believer”(c)
18:25 why so much pressure in doing math
21:09 how we cr ..read more
Math-Life Balance
6M ago
Kevin Buzzard is a professor in Imperial College London working in number theory and formal proof verification. In this interview, Kevin shares his views on the role of computers in doing math, tells about his experience of upbringing 3 kids as a researcher and raises questions about the way we approach math education. Lots of glorious laughter and unforgettable facial expressions are included!
Kevin's homepage: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/k.buzzard
Channel podcast: https://anchor.fm/math-life-balance
Chapters:
0:00 teaser
0:48 Kevin’s t-shirt
3:06 imagination in math
5:36 compute ..read more
Math-Life Balance
6M ago
Maria Chudnovsky is a professor at Princeton University, working in graph theory and combinatorics. In this interview, Maria shares her personal experiences: learning Hebrew from math lessons, giving a talk at NASA, using math at her own wedding, and many more!
Maria's homepage: http://web.math.princeton.edu/~mchudnov/
Photo: from Maria's homepage
The essay we mentioned:
W.T. Gowers "The two cultures of mathematics"
https://www.dpmms.cam.ac.uk/~wtg10/2cultures.pdf
0:00 teaser
0:29 respect for math at home
2:43 math helps when you don’t speak the local language
6:42 building a world around a ..read more
Math-Life Balance
6M ago
Tomer Schlank is a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, working in homotopy theory and arithmetic geometry. In this interview, Tomer shares his experience of advising a big group of students, speaks about the importance of embracing the struggle, and explains how to get unstuck in a math problem.
Tomer's homepage: https://mathematics.huji.ac.il/people/tomer-schlank
Photo: from Tomer's homepage
0:00 teaser
0:31 astronaut’s dreams
4:06 enjoying the struggle
8:27 top-down thinking
11:35 seminar with physicists
14:52 math dream with Vesna Stojanoska
19:24 taking breaks in projects
2 ..read more
Math-Life Balance
6M ago
Saul Glasman worked in homotopy theory and K-theory, and now works as a software engineer. In this interview, we discuss the hardships of academic jobmarket, fears around leaving math, and the fundamental problems in academia.
Saul's homepage: http://www-users.math.umn.edu/~sglasman/
Photo: from his website
#mathematician #mathlife #interview
#academiavsindustry #leavingacademia #jobmarketacademia
0:00 teaser
0:44 always loved math
2:04 why left academia
8:55 the fears of leaving
14:02 staying in touch with math
20:33 send greetings to Saul :)
21:55 stigma arou ..read more
Math-Life Balance
6M ago
Giulia Saccà is an assistant professor at Columbia University, working in algebraic geometry. In this interview, Giulia gives jobmarket advice for mathematicians, contemplates some of the struggles that minorities in math get to deal with, and tells about books that resemble math research.
Giulia's homepage: http://math.columbia.edu/~giulia/
Photo: Allegra Boverman
Women in Math program at IAS: https://www.ias.edu/math/wam
0:00 teaser
0:27 interests in history in philosophy
6:51 jobmarket advice
11:37 talking about our insecurities helps
16:23 struggles of minorities in math
20 ..read more
Math-Life Balance
6M ago
In this [episode], I read a piece from Thurston's essay "On proof and progress in mathematics", where he reflects on the importance of seeing mathematicians' progress and contributions much broader than just in proving new theorems.
William Thurston on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Thurston
Cover photo: from this Wikipedia page
The full essay: https://arxiv.org/pdf/math/9404236.pdf
Thurston's lecture "Knots to Narnia": https://youtu.be/IKSrBt2kFD4
Thurston's answer on MathOverflow about contributions in mathematics: https://mathoverflow.net/questions/43690/whats-a-mathem ..read more
Math-Life Balance
6M ago
This sarcastic [episode] is dedicated to my family and all my friends of the last 10 years. They will see why.
A special thanks to Nicole R. for the help with the video(s)! And to my brother for the T-shirt: there’s a tiny cute bug that says "I have giant problems".
0:00 Prologue
0:53 Inclusivity statement
1:24 How to build an abusive relationship with your research
3:00 How to suffer from doing research
5:10 How to be unproductive
7:01 How to compare yourself with others
8:38 How to feel worse from reassurance
9:33 Epilogue ..read more
Math-Life Balance
6M ago
Irakli Patchkoria is a lecturer at the University of Aberdeen, working in homotopy theory. In this interview, he speaks about math-tennis balance, shares his experience of moving from Georgia to Western Europe and admits taking part in illegal actions on university exams.
Irakli's homepage: https://www.abdn.ac.uk/people/irakli.patchkoria
Photo: Irakli's private photo collection
0:00 teaser
1:13 epic story of family math
6:21 father’s advice
10:25 don’t work too much
14:41 experience in collaborations
19:02 Georgians and assimilation
21:47 making new friends (hey, Zurich!)
25:47 cheating on e ..read more