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First female winner for Fields maths medal

bbc.co.uk

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Re: First female winner for Fields maths medal

#21

Post by jessaustin »

GFK_of_xmaspast wrote: post #20
toehead2000 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Im really, honestly, interested in what data you're talking about. Please paste a link.

The AMS commissioned a study a few years ago, and it was in the Notices in early 2011 or 2012.

It's funny though, that some political blowhard can pull a self-contradictory self-serving hypothesis halfway out of an orifice, and everyone bends over backwards to imagine a circumstance in which it possibly could be partially true. Anyone who disagrees with the blowhard had better bring some actual research.

Re: First female winner for Fields maths medal

#22

Post by GFK_of_xmaspast »

jessaustin wrote: post #21
GFK_of_xmaspast wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The AMS commissioned a study a few years ago, and it was in the Notices in early 2011 or 2012.

It's funny though, that some political blowhard can pull a self-contradictory self-serving hypothesis halfway out of an orifice, and everyone bends over backwards to imagine a circumstance in which it possibly could be partially true. Anyone who disagrees with the blowhard had better bring some actual research.

Welcome to the Patriarchy.

Re: First female winner for Fields maths medal

#23

Post by jessaustin »

GFK_of_xmaspast wrote: post #22
jessaustin wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's funny though, that some political blowhard can pull a self-contradictory self-serving hypothesis halfway out of an orifice, and everyone bends over backwards to imagine a circumstance in which it possibly could be partially true. Anyone who disagrees with the blowhard had better bring some actual research.

Welcome to the Patriarchy.

It's pretty sad that my most salient recent exposure to that (as a white dude myself) takes the form of apologists for a particular stupid old white man who has personally annoyed me for years. Sorry!

Re: First female winner for Fields maths medal

#24

Post by Mz »

qq66 wrote: post #19

So, is there any way for someone with no theoretical math background to even grasp a poor analogy of what her work is? With prizes like chemistry and biology, I can usually sit down with Google and slowly figure out what exactly the person did. With theoretical math and physics, I can't even decipher what I'm reading. Wikipedia: "... this led her to obtain a new proof for the celebrated conjecture of Edward Witten on…

I did some digging yesterday and this seems to be the best explanation in layman's terms I could find:

http://www.simonsfoundation.org/quanta/20140812-a-tenacious-...

Mirzakhani became fascinated with hyperbolic surfaces — doughnut-shaped surfaces with two or more holes that have a non-standard geometry which, roughly speaking, gives each point on the surface a saddle shape. Hyperbolic doughnuts can’t be constructed in ordinary space; they exist in an abstract sense, in which distances and angles are measured according to a particular set of equations. An imaginary creature living on a surface governed by such equations would experience each point as a saddle point.

It turns out that each many-holed doughnut can be given a hyperbolic structure in infinitely many ways — with fat doughnut rings, narrow ones, or any combination of the two. In the century and a half since such hyperbolic surfaces were discovered, they have become some of the central objects in geometry, with connections to many branches of mathematics and even physics.

Re: First female winner for Fields maths medal

#26

Post by qq66 »

Mz wrote: post #24
qq66 wrote: post #19

So, is there any way for someone with no theoretical math background to even grasp a poor analogy of what her work is? With prizes like chemistry and biology, I can usually sit down with Google and slowly figure out what exactly the person did. With theoretical math and physics, I can't even decipher what I'm reading. Wikipedia: "... this led her to obtain a new proof for the celebrated conjecture of Edward Witten on…

I did some digging yesterday and this seems to be the best explanation in layman's terms I could find: http://www.simonsfoundation.org/quanta/20140812-a-tenacious-... Mirzakhani became fascinated with hyperbolic surfaces — doughnut-shaped surfaces with two or more holes that have a non-standard geometry which, roughly speaking, gives each point on the surface a saddle shape. Hyperbolic doughnuts can’t be constructed…

Well, this is probably as good as it get for someone of my mathematical maturity. Thanks.
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