5th HLF – Interviews with mathematics and computer science laureates: Robert Endre Tarjan
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| Number of Parts | 49 | |
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| License | No Open Access License: German copyright law applies. This film may be used for your own use but it may not be distributed via the internet or passed on to external parties. | |
| Identifiers | 10.5446/40122 (DOI) | |
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2
00:00
Internet forumComputerMathematicsMusical ensembleComputer animation
00:12
Internet forumTuring testNevanlinna theoryNeue Mathematik1 (number)Musical ensembleState of matterProjective planeMathematicsFrequencyStudent's t-testMultiplication signGradientPoint (geometry)Library catalogWave packetMetropolitan area networkQuicksortUnterhaltungsmathematikNeighbourhood (graph theory)AxiomNumerical analysisEndliche ModelltheorieMathematicianTuring testAlgebraException handlingXMLComputer animationMeeting/Interview
04:22
Turing testNevanlinna theoryMultiplication signStudent's t-testProcess (computing)TheoremResultantCategory of beingGroup action1 (number)FrequencyInteractive televisionMeeting/Interview
06:36
Nevanlinna theoryTuring testGoodness of fitMultiplication signStudent's t-testMeeting/Interview
06:57
Nevanlinna theoryTuring testStudent's t-testEvent horizonTable (information)Multiplication signDirection (geometry)Musical ensembleVideo gameDistribution (mathematics)Object (grammar)Flow separationStatement (computer science)Meeting/Interview
Transcript: English(auto-generated)
00:22
Tell me about your mentors Well my first mentor I guess I would have to say not including my father would be Linus Pauling So my dad was working with Linus Pauling in Southern, California studying a particular kind of mental
00:44
Deficiency called fetal ketoneuria, which has to do with an inability to process a certain amino acid So I met Linus Pauling when I was something like eight years old or something because we were in Southern, California He was a Caltech my dad was at a state hospital, and they were doing this research project together
01:02
so I played mathematical games with Linus Pauling and He left a Caltech catalog with me so eventually I ended up going to Caltech as a undergraduate So I got some glimpse of a great man of science
01:24
More important probably was a math teacher I had in 8th and 9th grade his name was Mr. Wall And this was about the time I had discovered Martin Gardner's mathematical games column in Scientific American So I got all excited about mathematical games and Mr.
01:42
Wall even though this was a public school in Pomona, which was not a fancy neighborhood taught us Kind of the new mathematics before there was a new mathematics. He taught us pianos axioms and Algebra and stuff like that
02:02
And he challenged some of us some of the students got lost, but some of us really Appreciated so I became completely enthralled with mathematics at that point So he was probably the most important then I went to
02:22
Caltech because of Linus Pauling and I Majored in mathematics, and I spent a lot of time taking courses from Herb Riser who was a combinatorial Mathematician who was another inspiration and then I went to
02:42
Stanford and I would say both Don Knuth and my advisor Bob Floyd were mentors and then of course John Hopcroft who I worked with on the work that got the day touring award was a Mentor to me so there were a number of them over
03:04
Period of time, but probably the most important was my math teacher in eighth and ninth grade Is there a particular style of mentorship that you think you respond better to?
03:22
I would say something implicit You know it's more training by example or mentoring by example rather than someone saying something explicit or trying to train you it's a matter of Seeing a model and trying to follow in their footsteps
03:45
And what sort of how do you approach mentoring since I'm sure you have a lot of people who you're guiding through their careers I tried to be a non mentor except. I do answer questions. I'm not sure how successful
04:00
I am in that I mean students ask me questions about out of her researcher What problems to pick and I always tell them you have to find your own? Way somehow the most important problems are the ones you can find for yourself, and it's much more It's like an apprenticeship. I try to do I try to allow my students to see what I do and
04:24
participate in the process That's really what mentoring is all about I think I think explicit advice is Maybe not so important Now your students your students are seeing over a period of time where's the ones at HLF you're only seeing for the week
04:46
So it's impossible to do this in the short What kind of questions are people asking you here, and how do you answer them I? Think the most important thing is that just that we're here and that the students see that
05:04
All these theorems are results. They've heard about their actual flesh-and-blood Human beings attached to these things it makes it into a human process. It's not like There's some high being somewhere who has done all this stuff, but whoever did it
05:24
Is a human being just like you or I are maybe we can do it to? Bring the humanity of the process. I think that's what we can do in the short period of That's the main What do you think you get from each other?
05:42
Five I've been to all five I Enjoyed very much. Well. I developed social interactions with a lot of people whose names I knew about but who I either hadn't met or had very distant Relationships with so it's really I mean these people are amazing
06:01
I Feel very fortunate to be in this group. You know the thing about prizes is There are many more people incredibly deserving of prizes than Will possibly ever get prizes, so it's a it's a very special thing. We're fortunate
06:23
very fortunate Back to your question Huh, what do I get out of it? Well the interactions with the students are amazing And it's not just the young researchers, but a couple of times like this morning
06:42
I was at a high school trying to explain what I do to high school students, which is incredibly challenging But very important somehow. I mean the reason I do what I do is Because it's beautiful, and I love it, but also I think it's good for something
07:00
I hope that some other people will also find it Beautiful and love it, and if I can convince a few people Younger than I am then maybe they will carry the flame It's a very hlf statement well, that's what hlf is all about so but I
07:20
Believe it. I mean without the students. This would be a much less interesting and significant event Any final comments I Hope it goes on for a long time, and I hope I can keep attending. It's a wonderful It's a wonderful event. I enjoy it very much, and I hope the students at least some of them come back as
07:47
As awardees, I mean that's kind of the ultimate objective here. I would say Well, thank you very much for your time
08:04
Something very special about that event is the worldwide distribution of the students like I was just at a table upstairs with a bunch of students from Africa Mostly Nigeria, but several other countries and we see very few of these students at least I do in the United States
08:21
But there are smart people from all over the planet, and it's just an amazing. There's so much raw talent and these people They see the possibilities. They're inspired It's really a wonderful thing they need resources, but they see the right direction
08:41
One of the best student comments I got was from one of the Nigerians who said exactly as you say that you know I Got to see that these were not as he said spirits. They were people you know they had blood yes it's important and Some of us will not be around a whole lot longer unfortunately life is finite after all but
09:05
I think it's a very special thing both for us and more so for the students Thanks again