More Mathematical People Contemporary Conversations - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0151581754 ISBN 13: 9780151581757

Publisher: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1990

Synopsis

This volume provides a collection of interviews with, and profiles of, some of the most prestigious mathematicians of the 20th century. The chapters tell, in the mathematicians' own words, how they became interested in mathematics, how they chose their speciality and about their hobbies and personal lives. This book is the follow-up to "Mathematical People".

About this title

Review:

"Every mathematics deparmental common room should have this book (and its predecessor, Mathematical People). Concludes Constance Reid: "In spite of the habit of mind that all mathematicians share and the common joy that they take in their subject, there is no such person as the typical mathematician."
--Mathematics Magazine.
" . . .[the] idea that the talk of math whizzez might be both instructive and fun led to the book Mathematical People, a golden oldie in 1985 . . .
[The] copioslu illustrated [More Mathematical People] is an end - to - end delight. . . What's conveyed in More Mathemarical People is chiefly zest; if zests is not a mathematical truth, it's truth about where math comes from."
--Hugh Kenner's, Byte
"This handsome collection of interviews can be taken as a continuation of the book Mathematical People. In these extremely entertaining interviews, we learn about different approaches to mathematics and a good deal of history, how these mathematicians found their special concerns and their hobbies."
--D.J. Struik, Mathematical Review.
Praise for the first volume Mathematical People:
" . . . Mathematical People often makes us feel that we are at a cocktail party having a pleasant chat with a friendly person who happens to be a mathematician."
--The New York time Book Review
"Straightforward and lively throughout, the mathematical people here collected speak on all sides os the field's burning issues."
--San Francisco Chronicle

From Publishers Weekly:

The 18 eminent mathematicians profiled in these engaging, chatty interviews with the San Francisco Bay Area-based editors (Albers teaches math at Menlo College; Alexanderson teaches math at Santa Clara University; Reid is a freelance writer) show great variety in their personalities, backgrounds and outside interests. While some were near-prodigies, George Dantzig, "father of linear programming," almost flunked junior high school algebra. This sequel to Mathematical People contains stories about Lucien Le Cam's use of his statistical expertise to help a medical team cure his daughter of cancer and human rights activist Lipman Bers's escape from Russian-occupied Latvia. Interviews with Cathleen Morawetz, Julia Robinson and Mary Ellen Rudin attest to the social forces women must overcome in becoming mathematicians. All the interviewees testify to moments when they were first smitten by the elegance and beauty of mathematics. Many speak of their work as "fun." Photos.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
• Publication date: 1990
• ISBN 10: 0151581754
• ISBN 13: 9780151581757
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 375
• Editor: Donald J. Albers, Gerald L. Alexanderson, Constance Reid