Many natural and social phenomena may be viewed as inherently
computational; they evolve patterns of information that can be
described algorithmically and studied through computational models
and techniques. A workshop on the computational lens...
Thanks to the rabbit I pulled out of my hat on my returning from the museum the other evening, I’ve been able to get back on track. But today I’m filled with a strange mixture of optimism and dread. . . . the complexity of the mathematical landscape that’s now opened up makes my head spin if I think about it for more than a few moments.
Mathematics has proven to be "unreasonably effective" in
understanding nature. The fundamental laws of physics can be
captured in beautiful formulae. In this lecture, given at the
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Robbert Dijkgraaf...
A year ago in April, the editors of the Annals of
Mathematics, a journal published by the Institute and
Princeton University, received an email with a submission by an
unknown mathematician. “Bounded Gaps Between Primes” by Yitang
Zhang, an adjunct...
In January 1984, Alexander Grothendieck submitted to the French
National Centre for Scientific Research his proposal “Esquisse d’un
Programme.” Soon copies of this text started circulating among
mathematicians. A few months later, as a first-year...
My love affair with George Pólya began when I was seventeen. It
was in Chelyabinsk, Russia, and my first year at the university was
coming to an end. I had come across a tiny local library with an
even tinier math section, which nobody ever seemed...
When I was in middle school, I read a popular book about
programming in BASIC (which was the most popular programming
language for beginners at that time). But it was 1986, and we did
not have computers at home or school yet. So, I could only
write...
We felt like we were in uncharted territory: no mathematicians we knew had ever received grants of this magnitude before. Normally, mathematicians receive relatively small individual grants from the National Science Foundation. This sounded a bit scary . . . We turned to the Institute for Advanced Study as the place to foster innovation. As they say, the rest is history.
Mathematical language is becoming more and more pervasive. This
phenomenon ranges from the mundane (imprints on T-shirts or mugs)
to the more scientific (its use in reporting or in disciplines
outside of mathematics) and even includes art in its...
