Ian Stewart is the author of the new book Significant Figures: The Lives and Work of Great Mathematicians. His other books include Calculating the Cosmos and In Pursuit of the Unknown. He is an emeritus professor of mathematics at the University of Warwick, and his work has appeared in a variety of publications, including Scientific American and New Scientist. He lives in Coventry, United Kingdom.
Q:
How did you come up with the idea for this new book, and how did you pick the
mathematicians to include?
A:
The idea emerged during a lunch with my editor John Davey, who died recently of
throat cancer -- the book is dedicated to him. We often used to bat ideas
around to see if anything grabbed us.
Selecting
whom to include was tricky. The typical length for a popular science book is at
most 100,000 words. The publisher set a target of 90,000, later expanded to
95,000.
So
I knew I could include at most 25 people. That’s far too small to cover every
really important mathematician! I say explicitly early on that the people
featured are a selection. I made an initial list of about 50, and then whittled
it down.
I
decided that someone got in only if their mathematics was top quality and
highly influential, if their personal story was interesting in its own right,
and if they were dead. I considered it absolutely vital to include non-Europeans
and women, to show that the subject isn’t just the creation of European men.
Additionally,
the book had to give a clear impression of how mathematics itself has developed
over more than two thousand years. So I couldn’t have too many people working
in similar areas, for instance. About half the people included couldn’t possibly
be left out. Then I had to take a deep breath and choose the rest.
Q:
You begin with Archimedes. What would you say is his greatest legacy today?
A:
His fingerprints are still visible all over mathematics and science, but the
contribution most relevant to today’s world is probably the law of the lever.
This initiated the subjects of mechanics and engineering and it allowed frail
humans to handle huge, heavy objects.
“Give
me a place to stand,” said Archimedes, “and I will move the Earth.” It does
need a very long lever and the planet won’t move very far, but he did move an
entire ship on his own with pulleys, which apply the same basic law. Every
building site today is full of cranes and other machines that embody the law of
the lever.
Q:
And you conclude with William Thurston. Why did you choose him as your final
subject?
A:
I wanted someone modern, which meant someone who died fairly recently. I wanted
a “mathematician’s mathematician,” someone firmly in the theorem-proof
tradition of pure mathematics.
Bill
Thurston is a household name among mathematicians, his ability to handle
complicated geometry and topology is breathtaking, and his work is still of the
highest importance. He was also a very interesting, human character. Not at all
the ivory-tower caricature that many people think mathematicians resemble.
Q:
Of the 25 people you include, three are women. What obstacles did they face in
a male-dominated profession, and what is the situation today for female
mathematicians?
A:
As the book showed, the obstacles were huge. I would happily have included more
women, but until the mid-20th century there really were very few women in
mathematics.
Having
supervised half a dozen amazingly able women PhD students, I know from personal
experience that they’re just as good as the men.
But
historically, the culture of the times didn’t consider mathematics to be a
suitably womanly area. Even mothers would be horrified if their girl children
took an interest in science or mathematics, and get them to study needlework or
perhaps music.
In
the late 19th century, in most countries women could not attend university;
then they were allowed to go to lectures but not take exams; then they were
allowed to take exams but not be given a grade... and when they gained a postgraduate
degree, they couldn’t be employed in academic posts, or if they could, somehow
the appointments never got made.
My
three women trailblazers all had not only to battle against the inherent
problems of doing mathematical research — it often feels like banging your head
against a wall for months on end — but they had to fight every step of the way
even to be allowed to try. Their stories are amazing and inspiring — and, like
the men, they also had human frailties.
Many
more women are coming into mathematics, science, and engineering nowadays, but
the proportion is still too low, and there are serious obstacles — not least
unconscious bias, where (say) a hiring committee expects more of a female
candidate without actually realising that’s what they’re doing.
So
one positive step would be to raise awareness and prevent that kind of thing.
It’s better than it used to be, but still far from satisfactory.
Q:
What are you working on now?
A:
I’ve got contracts for two more popular mathematics books over the next three
years. I can’t reveal the topics yet, but the practical implications of
mathematics for humanity feature strongly in both.
I’m
also writing a couple of science fiction novels, rather intermittently. A
couple of years ago my colleague Tim Poston and I completed an SF novel we
started 38 years earlier: The Living Labyrinth. We then wrote the sequel, Rock Star, in six months.
We
had just started on a third book in the series when Tim died unexpectedly
during treatment for cancer, just after Rock Star was published. I’d like to
take the project to fruition, but now I’ll have to write most of it on my own.
Q:
Anything else we should know?
A:
I retired eight years ago, but as well as the popular maths books I’m still
doing research — it’s too much fun to stop. Currently I’m working with several
colleagues on the mathematics of networks, with applications to biology.
My
wife and I also take a keen interest in archaeology, especially ancient Egypt,
and geology. I’m about to finish three years on the Council of the Royal
Society, its governing body.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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