The Fields Medal should return to its roots
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Re: The Fields Medal should return to its roots
#2why don't we let the funders of the fields medal decide?
Re: The Fields Medal should return to its roots
#3Ok so what awards ceremony selection process isn’t political?
Any guess on who is in consideration of the 2018 prize? I imagine those under consideration are already at top tier institutions.
Is no noteworthy mathematics being done at less prestigious institutions? (Loaded question I know) but it would be cool to see some undiscovered mathematician doing ground breaking stuff at a lesser known university.
Re: The Fields Medal should return to its roots
#4I am not sure awarding someone a prize 20 years after their work like the Nobel, would achieve the goal of 'encouragement'. It may be ageist due to that goal but that was the intent of Fields.
Re: The Fields Medal should return to its roots
#5I think the age limit for the Fields medal reinforces this idea that "mathematics is a young mans game." It's one of many reasons why I got discouraged into entering mathematics when I was young because of this and math competitions.
When I was younger , I would visit websites such as AOP , and ask questions and then be treated in a condescending way by students who were my age or younger who would then boast about their scores on Contests such as AMC. This just reinforced me that I probably shouldn't waste time pursuing mathematics as a career because I felt that I was drastically behind them, and I would be competing with them for positions that they could take.
It took some time for me to realize that having encouraging parents who are academics/engineers helps significantly in guiding you in a career such as mathematics.
Re: The Fields Medal should return to its roots
#6I am not sure awarding someone a prize 20 years after their work like the Nobel, would achieve the goal of 'encouragement'. It may be ageist due to that goal but that was the intent of Fields.
I don't think this article is arguing that the Fields medal should imitate the Nobel prize. Rather, it argues that the Fields medal should return to its early selection criteria: mathematicians who have
1. done good work,
2. look like they will do more good work/positively impact math, and
3. would find the Fields medal's recognition and prestige useful in doing future good work (e.g. in getting them collaborators or funding)
The article argues that the An example of the kind of person this might help is Yitang Zhang, who made substantial progress on the Twin Primes conjecture in his 50s after a relatively quiet math career as an untenured lecturer beforehand. Granted, his result was big enough to get him a MacArthur and a professorship at his university, so he may not need extra recognition. But perhaps there are similar, less-lauded cases.
Re: The Fields Medal should return to its roots
#7Ok so what awards ceremony selection process isn’t political? Any guess on who is in consideration of the 2018 prize? I imagine those under consideration are already at top tier institutions. Is no noteworthy mathematics being done at less prestigious institutions? (Loaded question I know) but it would be cool to see some undiscovered mathematician doing ground breaking stuff at a lesser known university.
Like Grigori Perelman did?
Re: The Fields Medal should return to its roots
#8I think the age limit for the Fields medal reinforces this idea that "mathematics is a young mans game." It's one of many reasons why I got discouraged into entering mathematics when I was young because of this and math competitions. When I was younger , I would visit websites such as AOP , and ask questions and then be treated in a condescending way by students who were my age or younger who would then boast about t…
> It took some time to realize that having parents who are academics/engineers helps significantly in guiding you in a career such as mathematics.
This is true of every good job.
I'm trying to get hired at big 4 tech right now. Every person interviewing me is a rich kid. All of my competition is rich kids.
Touring these big tech companies was discouraging. They're all very diverse. Rich white kids. Rich Asian kids. Rich female kids. Rich European kids. Rich Indian kids.
I'm not sure there's anything I can ever do to make it past the social/socioeconomic judgment round of these interviews.
These interviews make me feel like Red at a parole hearing in Shawshank Redemption.
Re: The Fields Medal should return to its roots
#9I think the age limit for the Fields medal reinforces this idea that "mathematics is a young mans game." It's one of many reasons why I got discouraged into entering mathematics when I was young because of this and math competitions. When I was younger , I would visit websites such as AOP , and ask questions and then be treated in a condescending way by students who were my age or younger who would then boast about t…
> It took some time to realize that having parents who are academics/engineers helps significantly in guiding you in a career such as mathematics. This is true of every good job. I'm trying to get hired at big 4 tech right now. Every person interviewing me is a rich kid. All of my competition is rich kids. Touring these big tech companies was discouraging. They're all very diverse. Rich white kids. Rich Asian kids. R…
I was in a similar position for a long time but then I found once you make it into one of the circles all of the others open up. It’s dumb. There’s so much untapped talent out there because tech giants are relying on “namebrand” schools or other companies to do their recruiting filters for them.
Re: The Fields Medal should return to its roots
#10Ok so what awards ceremony selection process isn’t political? Any guess on who is in consideration of the 2018 prize? I imagine those under consideration are already at top tier institutions. Is no noteworthy mathematics being done at less prestigious institutions? (Loaded question I know) but it would be cool to see some undiscovered mathematician doing ground breaking stuff at a lesser known university.
Like Grigori Perelman did?
It appears that Grigori Perelman was a well-known mathematician even before his work on the Poincare conjecture. He proved the wonderfully named "soul conjecture" almost a decade beforehand.