I believe mathematicians/most academics are not a well-represented group. There are numerous factors for this; some stem from society’s lack of appreciation for mathematics, while others are due to academics themselves not feeling the need to promote their work. Overall, it is clear that most academics have great backgrounds, but humility often gets in the way.
I am a new* professional in this field, and I can use any advice I can get. In this series, I decided to seek that advice and get insights from great mathematicians around me about questions like “What does being an academic/mathematician mean to them?”, “What makes a good researcher?”, etc.
Here are some conversations I had :
- Stefano Capparelli (Sapienza Università di Roma)
- Christoph Koutschan (Johann Radon Institute for Computational and Applied Mathematics, Austrian Academy of Sciences)
- Krishnaswami Alladi (University of Florida)
- Douglas Cenzer (University of Florida)
- Kevin Knudson (University of Florida)
- Philip Boyland (University of Florida)
- Krishnaswami Alladi – 2 (University of Florida)
- Kwai-Lee Chui (University of Florida)
- Sara Pollock (University of Florida)
- Murali Rao (University of Florida)
- Marc Chamberland (Grinnell College)
- Alexander Berkovich (University of Florida)
- Christian Krattenthaler (University of Vienna)
- Wadim Zudilin (Radboud University)
- James H. Davenport (University of Bath)
- Matthew England (Coventry University)
- George E. Andrews (Pennsylvania State University)
- Miklos Bona (University of Florida)
- Bruno Buchberger (Research Institute for Symbolic Computation, Johannes Kepler University)
- Doron Zeilberger (Rutgers University)
- Ilias Kotsireas (Wilfrid Laurier University)
- James Sellers (Duluth University)
- Silviu Radu (Research Institute for Symbolic Computation, Johannes Kepler University)
*This statement might be slightly outdated, but the feeling is still there. (19/07/2025)
Ali K. Uncu 