#mathematicians

"“He started off solving well-known spectacular problems,” said Tobias Ekholm of Uppsala University. “At a slightly older age, he’s doing this same spectacular work, but he has this ability: He solves a famous problem but does it in a way that creates a framework, a whole new package, that will be useful to other people.”" https://www.quantamagazine.org/john-pardon-wins-the-2026-fields-medal-for-work-in-symplectic-geometry-20260723/ #Mathematics #Mathematicians #Medals #Fields

Link to stories for each of the Field and Abacus Medal winners for 2026. "Every four years, the math world’s preeminent awards are given to the finest minds of a generation. The young winners — all under 40 on the first day of the year — have reshaped mathematics and theoretical computer science. Here are their stories." https://www.quantamagazine.org/series/fields-and-abacus-medals-2026/ #Mathematics #Medals #Fields #Mathematicians

“Since antiquity, #mathematicians have suspected that O(n2) was an inherent speed limit for #multiplication. The celebrated Soviet math professor #AndreyKolmogorov posed the O(n^2) speed limit as a formal #conjecture and mentioned it during a 1960 seminar at Moscow State University. Whenever mathematicians propose a conjecture, they are planting a flag of sorts and waiting for others to either prove or disprove them. It took just a week for #AnatolyKaratsuba, then a 23-year-old student in the audience, to return and prove Kolmogorov wrong. Kolmogorov was stunned. The result was published in the prestigious Proceedings of the USSR Academy of Sciences, but amusingly, Karatsuba didn’t write it. Kolmogorov wrote the formal proof himself and submitted it for publication with Karatsuba listed as the lead author. Karatsuba only found out about the paper when he received the reprints in the mail. Karatsuba’s genius was realizing that you can trade expensive, time-consuming multiplications for cheap, fast #additions. Adding two n-digit numbers takes only O(n) time because it entails a single sweep through the digits rather than a complete sweep through the top number for every digit of the bottom number, as in multiplication.” #maths / #computation