Interview with a mathematician: Izabella Laba
Izabella Laba is a leading mathematician working at the University of British Columbia. Her research spans several fields such as harmonic analysis, geometric measure theory, mathematical physics, and the relatively new (but fast-breaking) area of additive combinatorics. She is highly awarded, having won the prestigious Coxeter-James and Krieger-Nelson Prizes of the Canadian Mathematical Society. In 2012, she became a fellow…
Algebraic topology and the brain
What is the connectome? Networks are everywhere: the roads in cities, links in the web, and the neural pathways in our brains. The science of networks is a trending topic interfacing with many disciplines. Mathematics, as you would expect, plays a major role in understanding the properties, structure, and evolution of networks. The connectome is a network consisting of…
Mathematics in the movies
Popcorn and math As the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival is about to open in Toronto, I think back on the amazing movies I’ve seen there with mathematical themes. Mathematicians aren’t exactly a movie producer’s dream protagonist. We don’t blow things up, have superpowers, or save the world from invading aliens (or do we?). Movies rarely,…
Get thee to a nunnery… and study math
Sisterhood of Mathematics My grade 11 Physics teacher was a nun. Thinking back, she reminded me of the famed mathematician Emmy Noether: she was big framed, wore simple clothes (no habit in class, however), and didn’t wear make-up. I think my classmates were frightened of her, but I wasn’t and she liked me. Maybe we were kindred spirits: my passion for…