Modern Mathematicians Everyone Should Know

1.Roger Penrose

2.Edward Witten (well, theoretical physicist)

3.Stephen Hawking

4.Paul Cohen

5.Alain Connes

6.Brian Greene

7.George Lakoff (not exactly a mathematician by formal training, but important)

8.Lee Smolin (another theoretical physicist)

9.Andrew Wiles

Look them up on Wikipedia if you haven't heard of them.

These are what I could think of to add:

10) William Thurston

11) John Milnor

12) Walter Rudin (Wrote the gold standard Analysis texts)

13) Grigori Perelman for sure!!

14) Richard Hamilton

15) Marston Morse (Died 1977)

16) Bertrand Russel (Died 1970)

17) Michael Spivak (another amazing author- hands down one of my favorites)

18) P. R. Halmos (Died 2006)

19) Ian Stewart (Publishes many mainstream books as well as texts)

20) Steven Krantz (A prolific author of both mainstream and textbooks)

21) Jerrod Marsden

you expect me to LEARN ALL THESE NAMES, AND WHAT THEY ACHEIVED???

They are many prominent mathematicians who have done many important things: Penrose with his special tiles, Twistor Theory, consciousness, Brian Greene the new Lucasian chair at Cambridge who was one of the major founders of string theory, Hawking for his work on black holes and their entropy, Andrew Wiles for pioneering in elliptical equations and solving Fermatt's last theorem, etc. These are all huge accomplishments that are noteworthy and ought to be appreciated.

Flash cards!

That would work. Of course this is meant to be informal, but is still important.

Hey, I think learning out Mathematicians is fun. Before I started working on my Bachelors degree, I read many books on the history of math, not because of the math itself but rather because mathematicians are very weird people. Look up Kurt Godel if you do not believe me, that guy was crazy!!

Personally, I am glad you posted this list. It draws attention to the rich culture and modern history of Math.

Oh yes, Godel...he thought he was being food poisoned during the end of his life so he essentially starved himself becuase he went a little paranoid. But what ideas! I just posted living mathematicians here, but the oldies are golden too of course.

Yeah, good old Godel... He took the Atkins diet to the max!

Just a minor technicality, Brian Greene, Stephen Hawking, and Roger Penrose are all theoretical physicists.

Yes, but the line blurs quickly. I'd say Hawking is the most applied of those three.

i once read a biography on Stephen Hawking... so there probably used to be some crazy facts i could tell you about him. However, I have forgotten them.... I remember he fell doen the stairs at some point because of his LMS,however... One of his first tutors at college said in an interveiw "it would be silly of me to think that i ever actually taught him anything." or something...

Would Einstein fit into this category?

And then there's John Nash, (the inspiration for the movie, 'A Beautiful Mind," and winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics.)

Sometimes it can be hard to draw a real distinction. For example, Einstein was more of a Theoretical Physicist than a Mathematician, but his physics research has prompted the creation of new fields within both math and physics. His General Relativity is actively studied by both Physicists and Geometers.

Also, Theoretical physics is very dependant on modern mathematics. It is not all caluclus. Much of particle physics is very dependant on a field called group theory- particularly particle physicists deal with things called Lie Groups which have Topological structure in addition to algebraic structure. People activly doing research using these tools tend to develop techniques which become contributions to both fields.

The major difference between Math and Physics (in general) is in what you consider to be the gauge of truth. To a mathematician, we define concepts, make a few assumptions about those defintions (these assumptions are called Axioms or Postulates), and then using the laws of logic, you figure stuff out (the stuff you figure out is called theorems).

Physicists, on the other hand, observe natural phenomina and try to form a really good guess as to what is going on (A Hypothesis). This hypothesis is tested to see if the phenomena can be reproduced under controlled conditions. After much experimentation and further theorizing, we arrive at a Theory which is basically an extremely good guess that very much appears to be right after a lot of experimentation.(So physicists never really know that something is true beyond a shadow of a doubt, but they become very confident in their theories. Mathematicians define their ideas and then use logic to establish implications.)

So the fundamental approaches are different but many of the tools are the same.

So personally, I would view Einstein as a Physicists who's research has contributed greatly to Mathematics.

you really could have just written "So personally, I would view Einstein as a Physicists who's research has contributed greatly to Mathematics." rather than that rediculously long thing.

Roger Penrose is actually Sir Roger Penrose

That may be so, but I, for one, being somewhat uneducated relatively speaking, appreciate the content of the post.

I know he's a sir; I could have put it, but I didn't think it was essential. Remember, we math lovers are pro-simplicity.

i suppose..

I suppose what? This should be interesting....