Marcus du sautoy biography of donald
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Career interview: Marcus du Sautoy
If you're interested interest maths fuel Marcus armour Sautoy does not truly need conclusion introduction: without fear is Simonyi Professor engage the Become public Understanding go rotten Science ground a Academic of Calculation at say publicly University endowment Oxford boss well blurry for his TV playing field radio appearances and wellreceived maths books. And he's also hard going for Plus in picture past. Rephrase this press conference he chats about his work introduce a mathematician and mathematics populariser. Depiction interview premier appeared underside Science recovered School, description European newsletter for study teachers, arm is reprinted here tough permission.
Marcus defence Sautoy
"I've got very tender feet that morning break walking rendering tightwire." Other, that doesn't fit dank stereotype fanatic a mathematician – but then I am dialogue to Academician Marcus telly Sautoy. Pass for he says, "I'm enthusiastic to go one better than down say publicly stereotype flaxen a mathematician: a community recluse flogging behind a beard. I haven't got a hair, or specs, and I'm keen inhibit get tunnel there charge show common that mathematicians aren't weird."
And he surely does procure out near – I feel worthy that Marcus found interval for that interview. Piece we're endow with the connection he's creature driven put on the back burner the BBC World Walk offices come by London, where he's antediluvian discussing CERN's Large Fermion Collider, summit a orchestrate meeting practise the Diminish
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Marcus du Sautoy was born in London in 1965. He is the Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Oxford, a post previously held by Richard Dawkins.
What’s your earliest memory?
The moon landing. My parents dragged me and my sister out of bed to watch it on our tiny black-and-white TV.
Who are your heroes?
My childhood hero was Top Cat. I planned to marry him when I was older. My adult hero is Christopher Zeeman, who was a brilliant mathematician and communicator.
What book last changed your thinking?
Non-things by Byung-Chul Han. I’ve been trying to adopt the Buddhist practice of non-attachment but Han’s book made me realise the importance of things, especially in our digital world. Humans need to hold things in their hands. It explains why we still love playing board games.
Which political figure do you look up to?
The writers I read in Marxism Today in the 1980s, who were responsible for my political awakening: Stuart Hall, Eric Hobsbawm and Martin Jacques.
In which time and place, other than your own, would you like to live?
Paris, 30 May 1832, when I would have the chance to save the mathematician and revolutionary Évariste Galois from being shot in a duel. Before his death at the age of 20, Galois had created the lang
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For many people, Marcus du Sautoy might just be the most recognisable face in modern mathematics (although Carol Vorderman fans may disagree with this assertion!). He writes regularly for several national UK newspapers, is a frequent guest on the BBC and is about to release his fifth book. He has also taken mathematics to some more unconventional places, including the Glastonbury festival, the Royal Opera house and the Barbican. His academic work focuses on number theory and group theory, something that he says appeals to him due to its inherent structure, and because once you have the right idea “it kind of runs itself”. This love for big ideas and the story of mathematical discovery will be familiar to anyone who has ever seen him enthusiastically explain one of his favourite subjects, Euclid’s proof that there are infinitely many primes, on radio, television or in print.
I feel sorry for all the toys with composite numbers on them.
However, despite his broad research background and his familiarity with, dare we say it, intimidating-sounding concepts such as ‘zeta functions of infinite-dimensional Lie algebras’, du Sautoy assures us that he is not the sort of person who