Alexander Grothendieck

Alexander Grothendieck passed away last month, one of the giants of twentieth century mathematics. Victor Gutenmacher sent me a link to an article by Pierre Cartier celebrating Grothendieck's life. I am somewhat chagrined that I knew so little about Grothendieck prior to reading the article, which I highly recommend.

Someone once said that there are two types of first-rate mathematicians: problem solvers and theory builders. Grothendieck was one of the latter. He left tens of thousand of pages of work, and directed a brilliant group of researchers at the Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientific who carried forward the program that he developed.

A grand synthesist, Grothendieck worked in fields as seemingly diverse as functional analysis, algebraic geometry, group theory, homological algebra, and Galois theory.

The remembrance of Grothendieck is "A Country Known Only by Name", a title that makes sense after reading the article. The author, Pierre Cartier, was a friend and colleague of Grothendieck and writes about both the man and his work. Grothendieck was principled to the point of eccentricity, and seems to have been very difficult to get along with. After a dispute over military funding in 1970, which offended his pacifism, he retired from involvement in the mathematical community and lived from 1988 in isolation.

This article is at http://inference-review.com/article/a-country-known-only-by-name. It is lengthy, but in my opinion well worth the time.

Wallace Feurzeig 1927 - 2013

Computer pioneer, mathematician, educator, mentor, and friend Wally Feurzeig passed away on January 4. Wally was a key member of the small  team that created the LOGO educational programming languages in the 60s. I' was privileged to know him and his lovely wife Nanni for over 15 years. Wally would listen patiently anc carefully to my various enthusiasms about math education, and always find something incredibly helpful to say, or introduce me to others from his circle such as Victor Gutenmacher and the late Oliver Selfridge who really expanded my understanding of what mathematics education could be. My wife Leslie and I were grateful for invitations to a Monday evening dinner that was cooked by his lovely wife Nanni, and featured some of their fascinating friends.

You can read about some of Wally's accomplishments on Wikipedia, but I just wanted to record a few personal remembrances here.

I am feeling the loss of a kind, gentle, and most intelligent man. We will not see Wally's like again.

Oliver Selfridge 1926 - 2008

On Wednesday December 4 I had an appointment to have lunch with Oliver Selfridge. I had met Oliver a few years ago when I was visiting a mutual friend, Wally Feuzeig, at BBN Educational Technologies, and had recently written him reminding him of our mutual interest in mathematics education. Oliver was enthusiastic, and send me some of his work: A Math Quiz that offers some very challenging problems for older children, and a list of Abstracts of 23 booklets that he had written (or was writing) to help interest children in mathematics. I had hoped to talk with Oliver about these projects as well as to mention to him some initial thoughts I had about writing a geometry book, and to find out if he might be interested in some sort of collaboration.

When Oliver did not show up for lunch, I went to his nearby office, and met Wally who told me that Oliver had been badly injured in a fall at his home the night before, and it was not known whether he would survive. In fact, he had just died.

If the name Oliver Selfridge is familiar to you, it is probably because of his pioneering work in Artificial Intelligence at MIT. You can read about it, and some other aspects of his fascinating life in the NY Times obituary. I would like to add that he was extremely generous, devoted to the education of children, and had kept a very child-like sense of wonder. I will miss him.