Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Imperial mathematician scoops $3M Breakthrough Prize

imperial.ac.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 111 posts

Re: Imperial mathematician scoops $3M Breakthrough Prize

#81

Post by yaseer »

JackFr wrote: post #78
yaseer wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

'...unheard of to most people internationally.' Taking this point further, I note there's a huge Anglo-Saxon bias in the prestige of Universities. I don't know why this is. I say this having studied at Oxford and Cambridge and noticed how 'unfair' it was that many French and German universities had undergraduate bodies with even higher selection standards, yet few people internationally would have heard of them. It s…

> I don't know why this is. > I say this having studied at Oxford and Cambridge Hah! So not so smart after all then...

As I said, Anglo-Saxon University prestige is overrated.

Maybe someone from a Grandes Ecoles would know ;)

Re: Imperial mathematician scoops $3M Breakthrough Prize

#82

Post by mindcrime »

mellosouls wrote: post #61
chrisseaton wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This prize isn’t too highly regarded. Wow this is an astronomically absurd Hacker News put-down.

See other comments for context. It was harsh, and perhaps a little out of date, but there has been criticism of the physics prize in the past. A little moderation on both sides on this point wouldn't go amiss.

> This prize isn’t too highly regarded.

> there has been criticism of the physics prize in the past

Those... aren't the same thing. I'm sure you could dredge up a few criticisms of the Nobel Prize in Physics as well, but would anybody say that the prize isn't highly regarded in general?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Prize_controversies#Phys...

Re: Imperial mathematician scoops $3M Breakthrough Prize

#83

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

OJFord wrote: post #37
tantalor wrote: post #28

That's not what "scoops" means! A scoop is publishing something before a rival can. You scoop the rival, not the story/prize.

I've never heard of scooping a rival - otherwise this is the same usage. A publisher 'gets the scoop' (a great story, a win) or scoops the story just as a mathematician scoops a prize.

Journalists get a scoop on their rivals when they publish impactful news first.

Re: Imperial mathematician scoops $3M Breakthrough Prize

#84

Post by C1sc0cat »

signal11 wrote: post #60
yaseer wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

'...unheard of to most people internationally.' Taking this point further, I note there's a huge Anglo-Saxon bias in the prestige of Universities. I don't know why this is. I say this having studied at Oxford and Cambridge and noticed how 'unfair' it was that many French and German universities had undergraduate bodies with even higher selection standards, yet few people internationally would have heard of them. It s…

Harvard and Oxbridge are world-class research universities, not just good undergraduate universities. For selective undergraduate universities, there’s a whole bunch of “elite” universities in Asia — eg the IITs in India, or Tsinghua & Peking in China, or NUS in Singapore. If someone asked me about Germany, Heidelberg probably comes to mind.

Does Heidelberg have the same cachet as Oxbridge in the UK

Re: Imperial mathematician scoops $3M Breakthrough Prize

#85

Post by [deleted] »

yaseer wrote: post #44
leoc wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Britain has a whole clutch of universities which are global research powerhouses but are scorned as boring redbricks (or whatever) by most of the locals and unheard of to most people internationally.

'...unheard of to most people internationally.' Taking this point further, I note there's a huge Anglo-Saxon bias in the prestige of Universities. I don't know why this is. I say this having studied at Oxford and Cambridge and noticed how 'unfair' it was that many French and German universities had undergraduate bodies with even higher selection standards, yet few people internationally would have heard of them. It s…

[deleted]

Re: Imperial mathematician scoops $3M Breakthrough Prize

#86

Post by mikorym »

yaseer wrote: post #44
leoc wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Britain has a whole clutch of universities which are global research powerhouses but are scorned as boring redbricks (or whatever) by most of the locals and unheard of to most people internationally.

'...unheard of to most people internationally.' Taking this point further, I note there's a huge Anglo-Saxon bias in the prestige of Universities. I don't know why this is. I say this having studied at Oxford and Cambridge and noticed how 'unfair' it was that many French and German universities had undergraduate bodies with even higher selection standards, yet few people internationally would have heard of them. It s…

I think this is at least in part due to QS ratings.

The first EU university enters in the 40s or 50s of the list and Australian universities seem perhaps overrepresented.

Closer to the ground, or, let's say, being more grounded in mundaneness, I think it's also because a lot of excellent papers are never translated to English. Asia "gets" this and pushes their English papers.

FWIW, Galois's memoirs have still not been translated, as far as I know.

Oh yes, and ETH Zurich is at least in the top 10 of the QS list.

Re: Imperial mathematician scoops $3M Breakthrough Prize

#87

Post by mellosouls »

mindcrime wrote: post #82
mellosouls wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See other comments for context. It was harsh, and perhaps a little out of date, but there has been criticism of the physics prize in the past. A little moderation on both sides on this point wouldn't go amiss.

> This prize isn’t too highly regarded. > there has been criticism of the physics prize in the past Those... aren't the same thing. I'm sure you could dredge up a few criticisms of the Nobel Prize in Physics as well, but would anybody say that the prize isn't highly regarded in general? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Prize_controversies#Phys...

Please don't quote me selectively if it distorts the point.

It was harsh, and perhaps a little out of date

Re: Imperial mathematician scoops $3M Breakthrough Prize

#88

Post by wenc »

yaseer wrote: post #81
JackFr wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't know why this is. > I say this having studied at Oxford and Cambridge Hah! So not so smart after all then...

As I said, Anglo-Saxon University prestige is overrated. Maybe someone from a Grandes Ecoles would know ;)

I guess I would say certain non-Anglo-Saxon elite institutions are underrated, but I wouldn't say Anglo-Saxon university prestige is overrated. They are, in some sense, correctly rated.

Re: Imperial mathematician scoops $3M Breakthrough Prize

#89

Post by maukg »

ChrisKnott wrote: post #23
chewbaxxa wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Warwick is particularly well regarded for its mathematics department.

I thought it was well known it was ahead of Oxford for Maths, second only to Cambridge and Imperial

It's well known to be ahead of Oxford and Imperial for Maths, second only to Cambridge.

Re: Imperial mathematician scoops $3M Breakthrough Prize

#90

Post by mikorym »

Oh, it's actually called the Breakthrough Prize.

I thought perhaps three of the Millennium problems had been solved, and the apocalypse were here.

BTW, for those interested in P=NP and not so much in the direct mathematical research, one interesting way to approach is via hash functions. If we had P=NP, then hash functions would be more easily invertible (eh, left or right invertible). I think in polynomial time. Sorry for the "I think", this isn't my field and I try to find ways to reinterpret it.

Post reply on HN