Karen Uhlenbeck gives remarks at the podium — Benoit Cortet

Karen Uhlenbeck gives remarks during a reception at IAS in celebration of her 2019 Abel Prize.

The “Fantastic” Feeling of a Breakthrough: Q&A with Math Prize Winner Karen Uhlenbeck

"When I’m working on a problem I usually sit down and think through what I know, and make notes and try out a few estimates, do some inequalities. Maybe I go look up a reference. And then I probably get stuck and go on to think about something else. I actually don’t save my notes; every time I sit down to look at a problem I tend to start thinking it through fresh to see if I find a different way to approach it."

Karen Uhlenbeck, 2019 Abel Prize winner and frequent Member and Visitor since 1979, joins Scientific American's Clara Moskowitz for an interview covering a day in the life of a mathematician, problems still to be solved, and the "fantastic" feeling of a breakthough.