Breakthrough in Ramsey theory
Breakthrough! Progress in mathematics is often slow and difficult, and breakthroughs in even minor seeming problems can take years. Results in my field may require new tools, new inspiration, or new computational power to achieve. Sometimes it takes all of these to push the subject forward. Last week, it was announced in a paper posted on arXiv…
Interview with a mathematician: Richard K. Guy
Richard K. Guy is the only mathematician I know working at age 100. A professor at University of Calgary, Richard is an expert in geometry, number theory, graph theory, and he is especially known for his contributions to combinatorial game theory. A prolific author with over 300 papers, he has worked with the greats such as Paul…
Interview with a mathematician: Jordan Ellenberg
Jordan Ellenberg is the John D. MacArthur and Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of Mathematics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He works in arithmetic algebraic geometry, and is well-known for his research connecting geometry, number theory, and topology. He is highly awarded, and is a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society, as well as a Guggenheim and…
Visualizing networks
Seeing is believing In my field of graph theory, or network science as it is sometimes called, we study dots and lines, and the patterns formed by the dots joining up with lines. The dots are referred to as nodes and the lines are edges. Networks are combinatorial patterns, analyzed using discrete mathematics. In network science, we…