In mathematics, we study the theorems but rarely the people behind them. I have gathered some stories here that show the human side. Some of these figures I deeply admire; others leave me feeling deeply conflicted. And frankly, some of them were just terrible human beings no matter how brilliant their work was.
Greatest person
Writing…
His work with Amnesty International in the 70s greatly extended his already-immense fame within and outside of his scientific career. He also taught mathematics at the University of Asmara, Eritrea from 1966 to 1973.
Writing….
She was a hard worker until she passed away at 81. She was initially denied admission to the university in the Soviet Union because her father had been executed as an ‘enemy of the people’. After several hardwork, she was finally admitted to the university thanks to Ivan Petrovsky. She could earn the Fields medal. Due to the Cold War, she was unable to earn the prize. However, she didn’t care that much.
Beyond her mathematics, she protected Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn during his years of political persecution in Soviet union.
Writing…
Writing…
Writing…
Mixed person
Gauss was often arrogant (notably with Abel) by saying that he did not look at it because noname cannot prove the notorious problem that I proved it. However, he was surprisingly unbiased when it came to pure mathematics. He recognized talent in juniors like Riemann and even in Sophie Germain at a time when women were excluded from the field.
He was really briliant. He became a professor at 24 even though he did not have doctorial degree. He predicted the importance of cybernetics and made a great project on developing scientific projects (Akademgorodok) in Soviet Union. According to some people, he was humble in academic perspective. He highly appreciated the work of Jean Leray who first introduced the notion of generalized derivatives and Sobolev generalized those concepts and sysmatically studied those. He had good relationship with Laurant Schwarz, who made the theory of distribution. Also, he was kind to young people and appreicated their idea.
However, in his 30, one of terrible story on him is related to 1936 Luzin affair who advocated the exclusion of him from the Academy (Luzin was his advisor). In fact, this was related to political ruthlessness. After that event, Sobolev became acamically and politically successful. It is hard to blame him because of Great Purge due to the greatest asshole Stalin.
Writing (early day, he was not a good man, but after several years, he became better human being)
Authorative figure
Writing… generally he was a good man but the Annalenstreit…