Some memories have staying power, and feel vivid and fresh like they happened yesterday. In this post I want to reminisce about the first problem I remember solving and give some context to it, which hopefully would be more interesting than the problem itself. I was truly fortunate to begin my mathematical education in the … Continue reading Research Life-Stories: Ilya Mironov, or The First Problem I Solved

Next story on our project from Russell Impagliazzo --------------------- It was my first semester at Wesleyan University. I was shuffling down the path crossing the main lawn in front of the administrative building in a jacket that was not warm enough. I had decided to astound my German professor by actually putting in a half … Continue reading Research Life-Stories: Russell Impagliazzo

Our project continues with Bobby Kleinberg. ------------------------------------------------------------ As an undergraduate I majored in mathematics and took only one computer science course. In fact quite a few of the mathematicians who influenced me were openly dismissive of computer science. Of course, throughout this period my brother Jon would continually talk to me about TCS — a … Continue reading Research Life-Stories: Bobby Kleinberg

Oded Goldreich makes a second contribution to the Research-Life Stories Project (see the first one here): ----- How I started enjoying the process of writing technical papers (1983-4) When I was a graduate student at the Technion (1980-3), I really hated the process of writing technical papers. In retrospect, I realize that this was rooted in … Continue reading Research-Life Stories – Oded Goldreich (2nd post)

Our next entry on the Research-Life Stories Project is by Oded Goldreich (a second installment by Oded will be posted in a few days). ------ This collection of my research-life stories was triggered by a request of Omer Reingold to contribute to a collection of research-life stories that he intends to maintain on Windows on … Continue reading Research-Life Stories – Oded Goldreich

Yuri Gurevich shares an anecdote about beginnings which he refers to as "Research-Life Prehistory" ------------ Mathematics is the last refuge of platonism. In what sense, mathematical objects – from real numbers to Banach spaces – exist? Where are they to be found, detected by experimental means? Mathematical platonism comes very naturally to working mathematicians. When you … Continue reading Research-Life Stories – Yuri Gurevich

As promised, I am writing the first post in our research-life stories project. I will start today with a few stories about my first steps in research. Nothing special in them, but I hope they will become more interesting in the context of other’s stories (which I hope will follow). So, tell us, how was your beginning? … Continue reading Research-Life Stories – Omer Reingold

A research career is different from most other jobs in its characteristic and challenges: Long period of education and training which is packed with uncertainty (Am I good enough? Will all this effort be rewarded by a suitable position in a suitable location to live in?), the tension between collaboration and competition, preserving creativity and … Continue reading Call for Research-Life Stories

New blog, first post, beginnings can be so exhilarating! But it also means another commitment and more work. So, why do it? The normative answer seems clear: Science is to a large extent about communication. Writing a blog can be conducive to research just like writing a paper, giving a talk or teaching a class. … Continue reading Labor of Love