30: Alex Kontorovich - Outreach, outsiders, and obeisance

Alex Kontorovich is a Distinguished Professor of Mathematics at Rutgers University with lots of experience in teaching and outreach. In our talk, we will touch on diverse topics, including:

- why care about math (and its history)

- what can outsiders bring to the table

- how useful it is to be the dumbest in the room

- where music meets math and where it doesn't

 

Startovač: https://www.startovac.cz/patron/misto-problemu/

FB page: https://www.facebook.com/mistoproblemu

Web: https://www.mistoproblemu.cz/

 

Timestamps:

(0:00) introduction

(00:46) problems, proofs, and thinking styles

(13:16) outreach, motivation, and explaining concepts

(28:06) interdisciplinarity and outsiders

(33:30) people teaching computers and vice versa

(39:52) stamina, humility, music, and gratitude

 

Links:

- MoMath: https://momath.org/

- Natural Number Game: https://adam.math.hhu.de/#/g/leanprover-community/nng4

- Lean in the browser: https://live.lean-lang.org/

- Prime Number Theorem project: https://github.com/AlexKontorovich/PrimeNumberTheoremAnd

- other Lean projects: https://leanprover-community.github.io/lean_projects.html

- polymath projects: https://polymathprojects.org/

- Alex's website: https://sites.math.rutgers.edu/~alexk/