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Hannah Fry Wins the Leelavati Prize in 2026 for Mathematics Outreach

maths.cam.ac.uk

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Re: Hannah Fry Wins the Leelavati Prize in 2026 for Mathematics Outreach

#51

Post by thegabriele »

rustyhancock wrote: post #39
kitd wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, just watching the first few minutes of the program, it's astonishing how prophetic it was.

It's not prophetic. Prophetic means it predicts the future, this is epidimlogical science being applied as intended. It didn't predict the future it designed it because we applied it. Contagion used GPS logging to predict who was where an applied a random transmission risk based on that. The actual origin of the Bluetooth proximity and duration tracking was from FluPhone back in 2010 or so[0] Human contact networks,…

Since you seems well versed in the matter...Did we learn something new from the whole covid experience?

Re: Hannah Fry Wins the Leelavati Prize in 2026 for Mathematics Outreach

#52

Post by ErrantX »

mi_lk wrote: post #27
vgivanovic wrote: post #5

What I love most is that Hannah Fry didn't get into the Cambridge undergraduate(?) math program (maths programme for you Brits) but became a math professor at Cambridge. Go Hannah!

Seems to happen to most top universities, or is there some context I'm missing?

Any elite selection process has high risk for not selecting the best people.

Either due to corruption or, even more likely, institutional biases.

Malcolm Gladwell has a few episodes of revisionist history that looks at some US universities who fall into this trap.

Even with all that said; the chances of a selection process for 17/18 year olds being able to correctly select the best future adults in their field is very low.

Another good example; the number of young geniuses or prodigies (whether maths, chess, acting etc.) who don't make anything of themselves.

Re: Hannah Fry Wins the Leelavati Prize in 2026 for Mathematics Outreach

#53

Post by hunnovi »

vgivanovic wrote: post #5

What I love most is that Hannah Fry didn't get into the Cambridge undergraduate(?) math program (maths programme for you Brits) but became a math professor at Cambridge. Go Hannah!

She is great at popularity regarding mathematics, but her achievements do not seem to be primarily within hardcore mathematical research, more within popularity and communication.

> She is the first Professor of the Public Understanding of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge,

I am not sure that she is a "math professor", but that she is a "professor of the public understanding of mathematics". The latter seems softer.

Re: Hannah Fry Wins the Leelavati Prize in 2026 for Mathematics Outreach

#59

Post by matsemann »

ryangittins wrote: post #55

It's been fun to see her steady rise since she first appeared on Numberphile more than ten years ago. She's a really excellent communicator of math and science. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rudzYPHuewc

Yeah, her enthusiasm is contagious.
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