In the beginning of the twentieth century, the University of
Göttingen was one of the top research centers for mathematics in
the world. The mathematician David Hilbert was a well-established
professor there, and during the winter semester of 1924...
During a visit to the Institute in the 1970s, the mathematician
John Horton Conway, then of Cambridge, spent the ten most
interesting minutes of his life. Invited to deliver a talk to the
undergraduate math club at Princeton, Conway made his way...
In 1900, David Hilbert published a list of twenty-three open
questions in mathematics, ten of which he presented at the
International Congress of Mathematics in Paris that year. Hilbert
had a good nose for asking mathematical questions as the
ones...
Kurt Gödel’s achievement in modern logic is singular and
monumental—indeed it is more than a monument, it is a landmark
which will remain visible far in space and time.
—John von Neumann
Upon presenting Kurt Gödel (1906-1978) with the Albert
Einstein...
