This prize isn’t too highly regarded. The physics prize has mostly consisted of string theorists giving it to their friends in the field.
What an ignorant thing to say.
Care to expand on why and give a correction?
Imperial mathematician scoops $3M Breakthrough Prize
11–20 of 111 posts
Re: Imperial mathematician scoops $3M Breakthrough Prize
#12There is a 2014 Quanta Magazine article on Martin Hairer which I found interesting. https://www.quantamagazine.org/hearing-music-in-noise-martin...
One thing I learned: he did his work while at Warwick. Warwick is kind of under-estimated among UK universities. It's reasonably well-run (which makes it almost unique), regularly hires smart people, and doesn't have the Brideshead Revisited hangover of Oxbridge.
Re: Imperial mathematician scoops $3M Breakthrough Prize
#13> He won the Fields Medal in 2014 Damn. I'm sure he appreciates the $3M (elsewhere he joked that he could finally afford to buy a house in London) but the Fields Medal is a much bigger deal in the world of mathematics.
Which actually made me wonder - where/how do London academics live? I find it hard to imagine them commuting for hours from the suburbs - it does not seem very consistent with an academic life - but I do not see them being able to afford to live near their universities either.
> I find it hard to imagine them commuting for hours from the suburbs...
Why? It's as easy to commute from certain places outside of London as inside. For instance, it takes longer for me to get from where I live in south London to e.g. Kings Cross than it would to get there from Cambridge. The amount of time you save by living more centrally is probably less than 20 minutes.
Re: Imperial mathematician scoops $3M Breakthrough Prize
#14This prize isn’t too highly regarded. The physics prize has mostly consisted of string theorists giving it to their friends in the field.
What an ignorant thing to say.
Re: Imperial mathematician scoops $3M Breakthrough Prize
#15> He won the Fields Medal in 2014 Damn. I'm sure he appreciates the $3M (elsewhere he joked that he could finally afford to buy a house in London) but the Fields Medal is a much bigger deal in the world of mathematics.
Which actually made me wonder - where/how do London academics live? I find it hard to imagine them commuting for hours from the suburbs - it does not seem very consistent with an academic life - but I do not see them being able to afford to live near their universities either.
I imagine that a knighted professor at Imperial can comfortably access a mortgage in London, so I doubt this applied to Martin Hairer.
But, post-graduates in London (if they have no other source of support) do tend to have a difficult lifestyle. Not recommended.
Re: Imperial mathematician scoops $3M Breakthrough Prize
#16There is a 2014 Quanta Magazine article on Martin Hairer which I found interesting. https://www.quantamagazine.org/hearing-music-in-noise-martin...
One thing I learned: he did his work while at Warwick. Warwick is kind of under-estimated among UK universities. It's reasonably well-run (which makes it almost unique), regularly hires smart people, and doesn't have the Brideshead Revisited hangover of Oxbridge.
Can confirm the stats department at Warwick is good & pretty active.
Re: Imperial mathematician scoops $3M Breakthrough Prize
#17There is a 2014 Quanta Magazine article on Martin Hairer which I found interesting. https://www.quantamagazine.org/hearing-music-in-noise-martin...
One thing I learned: he did his work while at Warwick. Warwick is kind of under-estimated among UK universities. It's reasonably well-run (which makes it almost unique), regularly hires smart people, and doesn't have the Brideshead Revisited hangover of Oxbridge.
Warwick is particularly well regarded for its mathematics department.
Re: Imperial mathematician scoops $3M Breakthrough Prize
#18> He won the Fields Medal in 2014 Damn. I'm sure he appreciates the $3M (elsewhere he joked that he could finally afford to buy a house in London) but the Fields Medal is a much bigger deal in the world of mathematics.
Which actually made me wonder - where/how do London academics live? I find it hard to imagine them commuting for hours from the suburbs - it does not seem very consistent with an academic life - but I do not see them being able to afford to live near their universities either.
Imperial, on the whole, is one of the better-paying Universities in the UK, and certain Departments are able to provide considerable supplements upon base salaries.
The vast majority of academics with families live in the outer zones in London, or commute by rail from the suburbs just outside. London has a very dense and efficient public transport network, and therefore a typical commute time is around 40 minutes, and in most cases less than 1hr.
The price of accomodation remains an issue with younger academics, who arrived in London after the housing booms (1st surge around 2004, 2nd around 2010). Consultancy, enterpreneurship etc do provide good additional income streams for many, and therefore it still all makes sense.
More recently Imperial has been developing some of its own accomodation for junior staff and graduate students, which is made available at subsidised rates.
Re: Imperial mathematician scoops $3M Breakthrough Prize
#19This prize isn’t too highly regarded. The physics prize has mostly consisted of string theorists giving it to their friends in the field.
So it is like Nobel Prize
Re: Imperial mathematician scoops $3M Breakthrough Prize
#20> He won the Fields Medal in 2014 Damn. I'm sure he appreciates the $3M (elsewhere he joked that he could finally afford to buy a house in London) but the Fields Medal is a much bigger deal in the world of mathematics.
Which actually made me wonder - where/how do London academics live? I find it hard to imagine them commuting for hours from the suburbs - it does not seem very consistent with an academic life - but I do not see them being able to afford to live near their universities either.
It's somewhat common for London office workers to park at an overground station 30mins-1hr out of london and commute in.