5th HLF – Interviews with mathematics and computer science laureates: Shigefumi Mori
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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 | 10.5446/40123 (DOI) | |
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2
00:00
Internet forumComputerMathematicsMusical ensembleComputer animation
00:12
Internet forumFields MedalQuicksortProof theoryPersonal digital assistantPrisoner's dilemmaDimensional analysisUniverse (mathematics)Perturbation theoryPoint (geometry)CASE <Informatik>Projective planeResultantTime zone2 (number)Multiplication signComputer programmingStudent's t-testPosition operatorMusical ensembleBitDirection (geometry)Variety (linguistics)Flow separationLemma (mathematics)JSONXMLUMLMeeting/Interview
07:36
Fields MedalMathematicsComputerInternet forumInteractive televisionMathematicianComputer scienceCollaborationismMultiplication signNeuroinformatikPosition operatorMathematicsTuring testFields MedalIdeal (ethics)Right angleMusical ensemble8 (number)Interior (topology)WordMeeting/Interview
13:12
Internet forumComputer animationJSON
Transcript: English(auto-generated)
00:23
Can you tell me something about your mentors? My mentors? My supervisors? The people who, when you were the age of the young researchers now, in your 20s, let's say. I guess my mentor will be... I have several mentors, actually.
00:43
One of them is Professor Masayoshi Nagata. When I entered Kyoto University, my second year and on, he was my advisor.
01:01
He doesn't talk very much, and I don't either. The usual way to go is he suggests some problems, and I work on them. When I did something, I showed it to him.
01:21
Nevertheless, he gave a very good problem, which sort of set my few years goal, or maybe longer, and suggested my direction to do my research.
01:42
That's one case. Another is Professor Sumihiro. He worked more closely to me. My first major result is a solution of something called Hot Zone Conjecture.
02:08
This is a problem for varieties of dimension 3 and higher, 3, 4, 5, and so on. He was originally interested in this problem, but not me.
02:24
I had some interest, but it was through him. At a certain point, he and me received a preprint of solving some slightly weaker conjecture.
02:41
When I was reading the manuscript, I realized that we can do something on dimension 3, and I talked to him, Sumihiro, and we worked together and settled the dimension 3 case. That's how I got into it, and that's the case of his mentorship.
03:05
It's very interesting to me that it was a problem that you weren't interested in to begin with. Well, I mean, it was his problem. I shouldn't interfere with it. But once I got really interested in it, he knew it, and we even worked together.
03:29
Also, if I keep talking about this, we finished dimension 3 case, but it was pretty clear that the method does not go up to dimension 4 or higher.
03:45
The project stopped there, and then the next year, I got my PhD, and I moved to Harvard University as a Benjamin Pierce assistant professor.
04:00
It's just a kind of a postdoc position. And then that was 1977. In 1978, in the summer, that was my first summer at Harvard. I realized that as soon as the semester ends, there's nobody in the department.
04:22
Then I didn't have any idea to go on or anything, so I was just left alone in the department, and now I got curious about the problem which I sort of abandoned a year ago. And so I tried to solve it.
04:41
And since I knew how difficult it is, I set up certain intermediate problems. And so working on it, I thought I proved it, and then I checked it further. I realized that there's a gap, and I examined further.
05:02
Then I realized that something unexpected happened. That's why the proof failed. Something unexpected was a very useful lemma.
05:22
So I sort of digged out of the lemma, and once I realized what it means, I could solve the original conjecture in about a week. So that's how it happened. So that's interesting that that result came not from any mentorship since you were all alone.
05:42
In that case, yeah, but somehow it just so happened that he was at Harvard for about a couple of months. And I showed it to him, and then he checked it very kindly.
06:04
But possibly my guess is that it was a bit of a disappointment that he couldn't solve it. But still he agreed to me. So now, of course, you are a mentor to many people, including the... I'm not that many.
06:21
So I'm not teaching in university. I'm at a research institute in a university. So we don't teach undergraduate. From time to time I'm asked to do something, but that's a special arrangement.
06:42
But still we teach graduate students through educational seminars. So it's much fewer versus fewer. And that's how we, in a sense, mentor students.
07:01
But not that many. Well, here at HLF, I imagine there are people coming up to you and asking you questions about what they should do with their career. Yeah, but that's... yes, they do. So when that happens, I listen to them. And because it depends on the case.
07:23
There's no sort of one solution which fits all. So it's really case by case treatment. How many of these have you been to, the HLF? Four. This is my fourth time.
07:42
So this is the fifth HLF. And the first year I did not come. And second year was 2014. And that time I knew I was going to be elected president of IMU.
08:00
And IMU is involved in this business. So I thought I should see how things are. And then from next year I'm involved. So I come here. I'm sorry, what year did you receive your award on? About 1990. Yeah, a long time ago.
08:21
So you were invited from the beginning. Yes, first year I was invited. But I did not know what it is. But you keep coming back now, so you must get something from it. I think this is my duty to be here as president of IMU.
08:47
Since IMU is backing up this HLF, IMU is involved. Actually you're in an unusual position. Usually I'm talking to laureates just about themselves.
09:03
But as the president of IMU, would you care to talk about how the HLF interacts with the IMU? And how this might increase the exposure of the awards or vice versa? Anything you care to talk about?
09:20
So IMU awards the Fields Medal and the Nivalina Prize and some others as well. So the HLF invites the Fields Medalists and the Nivalina Prize winners. And they also invite Turing Prize and now a new ACM Prize.
09:48
So I think it's important that mathematicians meet computer scientists. I mean, putting aside young investigators, there are various aspects.
10:00
And also for young mathematicians, it's important to get to know computer scientists. Why? Well, somehow computer science, well maybe this is just my prejudice,
10:21
but I've got the impression that some computer scientists don't think that they are mathematical scientists or mathematicians. And some people do think that they are mathematicians. But the important thing is that we should get to know each other. Because usually I don't meet them.
10:41
This is a very rare occasion where I meet computer scientists. After all, this is a person versus person. So it's best to know them personally. I mostly know the computer science people since I worked for ACM for a while.
11:01
And one thing that many of the laureates have said is, well the Turing Award winners are usually in their 70s or older. And they say that, well when we started we were mathematicians or electrical engineers. And that the two have really grown apart in a way.
11:22
I guess I have no questions about that. Yeah, but that's the thing I am concerned about. So we should get to know each other, and new collaboration may occur. That will be ideal. Because mathematics is needed everywhere.
11:42
To make things more sophisticated, it should be mathematized in a sense. I mean it's happening everywhere. Is there anything else you'd care to add? Of course for popularization, HRF is really great.
12:04
And that's one of the reasons why I am willing to visit high school. So actually this morning I visited one of the high schools. And last year I did. So after all we should, I am not good at advertisement,
12:23
but still we should let them know what the mathematicians are. What kind of people they are. They are not crazy people. Maybe some. Yeah, but that happens everywhere.
12:45
There are a few crazy computer scientists, and there are some crazy scientists in other disciplines everywhere. Thank you very much for taking the time.