Anyone else here still follow her advice about how to quickly evict all the hot air in your car on a summer's day?
Yep, it was a game changer in this Texas heat!
Hannah Fry Wins the Leelavati Prize in 2026 for Mathematics Outreach
81–90 of 116 posts
Re: Hannah Fry Wins the Leelavati Prize in 2026 for Mathematics Outreach
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
I normally can’t stand the show but the previous celebrity one was superb! This line up looks great too.
It's not my sort of show but I'd put my money on Julie Hesmondhalgh or (wildcard bet) Amol Rajan.
If Alan Carr can win the previous series then it’s safe to say anyone can.
Re: Hannah Fry Wins the Leelavati Prize in 2026 for Mathematics Outreach
#83> As Fry says, the limit to someone's understanding is never their ability to understand. The limit is always in their motivation to care. And she sees her role as being to provide that motivation.
> "I think what you need to do," she says about the key to connecting with a wide audience, "is to create a hole in people’s imagination. If I can create just a moment where you want to know the next bit – you know exactly the size and shape it needs to be to fulfill your craving for that exact piece of information – then everybody's in."
I wish we had more teachers that thought like this.
Re: Hannah Fry Wins the Leelavati Prize in 2026 for Mathematics Outreach
#84> As Fry says, the limit to someone's understanding is never their ability to understand. The limit is always in their motivation to care. And she sees her role as being to provide that motivation. > "I think what you need to do," she says about the key to connecting with a wide audience, "is to create a hole in people’s imagination. If I can create just a moment where you want to know the next bit – you know exactly…
Seems like great advice. Beyond what we think are intellectual curiosities, passion tends to be the main driver.
Re: Hannah Fry Wins the Leelavati Prize in 2026 for Mathematics Outreach
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 ver…
Having interviewed maths applicants for Oxford, I don't think it's just corruption or biases - there are just more really bright students that you have places for and have to reject some people! We all tried really hard not be biased but I don't think there is any way to guarantee that you aren't somehow, however hard you try.
It's very hard to predict from a half hour interview precisely who will do well in future, and in fact some people might do better having gone to other universities. Oxford and Cambridge aren't the best choice for everybody - I'm sure being a bigger fish in a smaller pond suits some people better.
Re: Hannah Fry Wins the Leelavati Prize in 2026 for Mathematics Outreach
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
Oxford & Cambridge are very selective and entry is very competitive. Unusually for UK universities they hold a separate entrance exam for all courses. (Information about the extra admissions tests done by some universities and some courses: https://www.ucas.com/applying/before-you-apply/what-and-wher... .) Fun fact: When I applied to Cambridge I was interviewed by Mary Beard.
Entry is to Oxford and Cambridge is by interview. A lot hinges on that.
In maths, if you do well enough in the exam, you have to really mess up the interview to not get in though I would say. If you're borderline, the interview is important though - the interviews will usually be 95% maths questions so it's more like doing an oral exam where you have to explain your thinking process and answers.
Re: Hannah Fry Wins the Leelavati Prize in 2026 for Mathematics Outreach
#87I'd love to see her do a modern version of James Burke's Connections series. I think she's got a similar type of dry wit to Burke.
Re: Hannah Fry Wins the Leelavati Prize in 2026 for Mathematics Outreach
#88She gave a talk at my then employer during the pandemic, I think that was my first time listening to her. Well deserved.
Re: Hannah Fry Wins the Leelavati Prize in 2026 for Mathematics Outreach
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
She was a professor in the mathematics of cities (applied spatial mathematics) before that — in her early thirties. She is an expert in applied mathematics (president of the applicable UK institute, actually) and this is absolutely of a piece with that; it's not some wishy-washy thing that she does. Public understanding of science has proved to be a valuable field, and I think this will be important. Her Oxford oppos…
> She was a professor in the mathematics of cities (applied spatial mathematics) before that — in her early thirties. But, that was not at Cambridge, which is what the original post by vgivanovic claimed, right? It was at University College London. > Public understanding of science has proved to be a valuable field, I never contested that, assuming that it is done responsibly and well. But that field, as well as a la…
I have no idea why you have this weird axe to grind. Yes she has done research
https://www.nature.com/articles/srep01303
https://www.thelancet.com/article/S1473-3099(20)30457-6/full...
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-024-03164-7
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.16.20023754v...
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/european-journal-of-...
Etc etc. That’s papers in Nature, The Lancet, The European Journal of Applied Mathematics etc. If you actually searched you would have found tons and tons of papers and citations. She clearly does “hardcore” research by any reasonable definition as you would expect given she has been for some time a professor at UCL which is a top-tier university.
Re: Hannah Fry Wins the Leelavati Prize in 2026 for Mathematics Outreach
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 ver…
"Malcolm Gladwell has a few episodes of revisionist history"
that's a complete sentence already