Mathematical People: Profiles and Interviews [Hardcover]

D. Albers (Author), G.L. Alexanderson (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0817631917 | ISBN-13: 978-0817631918 | Publication Date: January 1, 1985 | Edition: 1

This unique collection contains extensive and in-depth interviews with mathematicians who have shaped the field of mathematics in the twentieth century. Collected by two mathematicians respected in the community for their skill in communicating mathematical topics to a broader audience, the book is also rich with photographs and includes an introduction by Philip J. Davis.

--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

For most of us mathematics is ancient and ossified, like Latin. Yet if a single thread runs through these 25 interviews and profiles of living mathematicians, it is that their work is far from dead. The editors, both math professors, want Mathematical People to dispel the notion that mathematicians are remote, unapproachable, aloof, and may be even a bit strange. --Terence Monmaney, Science

In Mathematical People, 25 welcome and often engaging profiles of or conversations with the men and women of mathematics, we discover that mathematicians have clear recollections of when they fell in love with the subject. Books like Mathematical People can also be instruments of the subject s survival. By introducing the public to otherwise normal human beings who happen to love mathematics, helps make the subject less frightfully alien. --Michael A. Guillen, The New York Times

Unless your next-door neighbor happens to be a mathematician, you won t find a more human introduction to mathematics than Mathematical People. The book relies on short, lively interviews instead of scholarly biography to dramatize the daily lives, work, and hopes of some 20 modern mathematicians. --Frank Morgan, Technology Review --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Donald J. Albers is Editorial Director of the books program of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA). He is former Associate Executive Director and Director of Publications of the MAA. Prior to that, he was chair of the Department of Mathematics of Menlo College. He was the founding editor of Math Horizons, and as editor of the College Mathematics Journal he introduced interviews and profiles of famous mathematical personalities, which ultimately led to the publication of Mathematical People (with G.L. Alexanderson) and More Mathematical People (with Alexanderson and Constance Reid). He has co-edited six other books.

Gerald L. Alexanderson is the Valeriote Professor of Science at Santa Clara University where he was chair of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science (for 35 years!). He is the Former President (1997-1999) and past Secretary of the Mathematical Association of America. He is also the Associate Director of the William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition, former editor of Mathematics Magazine, and currently editor of the Spectrum Series of books for the MAA. Overall he has written or edited, almost always in collaboration with others, 14 books ranging from textbooks, problem collections, histories and biographies, to anthologies. Paraphrasing Vikram Seth, he claims that with few exceptional short periods he has always kept Pacific Standard Time. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 372 pages
• Publisher: Birkhäuser Boston; 1 edition (January 1, 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0817631917
• ISBN-13: 978-0817631918
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,267,211 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Interviews and descriptions of 25 mathematicians who are portrayed as people first, December 29, 2008

By 

Charles Ashbacher (Marion, Iowa United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Mathematical People (Paperback)

When thinking of this book, the emphasis should be on the word "people" rather than the word "mathematical." For mathematicians experience the same things is life that all others do, everything from the thrill of a wondrous proof or the landing of a dream job to the tension of performance anxiety, the loss of a job and the frustrations of what is just basic living.
This book is a series of interviews of 25 of the most famous mathematicians of the middle and late twentieth century. The people featured are:

*) Garret Birkhoff
*) David Blackwell
*) Shiing-Shen Chern
*) John Horton Conway
*) H. S. M. Coxeter
*) Persi Diaconis
*) Paul Erdos
*) Martin Gardner
*) Ronald L. Graham
*) Paul R. Halmos
*) Peter J. Hilton
*) John Kemeny
*) Morris Kline
*) Donald Knuth
*) Benoit Mandelbrot
*) Henry O. Pollak
*) George Polya
*) Mina Rees
*) Constance Reid
*) Herbert Robbins
*) Raymond Smullyan
*) Olga Taussky-Todd
*) Albert W. Tucker
*) Solomon Lefschetz
*) Stanislaw M. Ulam

The style of the statements ranges from the unusual to the extremely serious. While all are interesting in that they present mathematicians as people, I found the two most interesting to be those about Ronald Graham and Raymond Smullyan. Graham's because he could have been a successful circus performer and Smullyan because his path to mathematics was so unusual. Smullyan was teaching college math classes before receiving his bachelor's degree and some of the courses he was given credit for in his bachelor's degree was awarded for his teaching rather than taking the classes.
By presenting mathematicians as people working their way through life, this book helps dispel the myth that mathematicians are by necessity extremely unusual.