Mathematical friendships and romances
Mathematical friendships and romances emerge from the collaborative nature of the mathematics community, where shared interests often foster deep connections. Historically, mathematicians have bonded over mutual challenges and breakthroughs, with significant relationships often forming between colleagues, mentors and students, and even spouses. Aristotle's classifications of friendship based on pleasure, profit, and mutual good can be seen in these dynamics, as successful partnerships are rooted in shared goals and support. The practice of correspondence among mathematicians, exemplified by figures like Marin Mersenne in the 17th century, illustrates the importance of social networks in the development of mathematical ideas.
In contemporary settings, the overlap of professional and personal lives is prominent, with many mathematicians marrying fellow mathematicians, leading to the so-called "two-body problem" regarding job placements. Notable examples include the friendships between Johann Bernoulli and Leonhard Euler, as well as Karl Weierstrass and Sonia Kovalevsky, which highlight the potential for both intellectual collaboration and personal bonds to flourish. The concept of the Erdös number, which quantifies the collaboration of mathematicians based on their work with Paul Erdös, further emphasizes the communal aspect of mathematical research. Additionally, modern mathematicians like Terrence Tao exemplify how personal relationships can intertwine with academic collaborations, contributing to both professional success and personal fulfillment within the mathematical community.
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Mathematical friendships and romances
SUMMARY: The shared and often highly specialized interests of mathematicians naturally lead to bonding.
While mathematics is often thought of as independent work, collaboration among mathematical peers is evident throughout the history of mathematics and in contemporary research settings. In the twenty-first century, many mathematicians write papers together, and most graduate students share offices and work with an adviser. These types of collaborative interactions may foster a sense of shared bonding that sometimes leads to friendship or romance. In his book Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle posits the widely held view that friendships may be based on pleasure, profit, or similar values. Mathematical partnerships may be rooted in a common desire to produce mathematical results or to discuss the frustrations and difficulties that arise from work. However, successful partnerships do not exist just for pleasure or profit but for the mutual good.
During the seventeenth century, many natural philosophers engaged and developed their mathematical knowledge and shared their theories via letter writing. One prolific example was the Minim monk Marin Mersenne (1588–1648) who had about 200 correspondents, including René Descartes (1596–1650), Pierre de Fermat (1601–1665), and Blaise Pascal (1623–1662). Because of his connections with so many mathematicians and philosophers of the time, and as he lived in Paris near the Place Royale, Mersenne became the hub of a social network that often assembled at his residence. This gathering eventually evolved into the Paris Academy around 1635 and fostered a community of learning.
Mathematical friendships or romances may blossom from a mentorship between professor and student, although this violates the faculty guidelines of many twenty-first-century institutions. There is the potential for abuse because of the power and authority the mentor or instructor has over the student in terms of grades, evaluations, letters of recommendation, and other educational and professional outcomes. Johann Bernoulli (1667–1748) and Leonhard Euler (1707–1783) developed a mutually beneficial relationship that began when Euler was studying at the University of Basel. This friendship spawned another between Euler and Johann’s son Daniel Bernoulli (1700–1782), who later encouraged Euler to join him at the St. Petersburg Academy. Eventually, Euler not only joined the academy but, during his early years in Russia, resided with Daniel Bernoulli. Together, these two men engaged in learned discussions of their shared research interests in mathematics and physics, particularly hydrodynamics.
Another friendship between mathematicians that developed from a student–teacher relationship was that of Karl Weierstrass (1815–1897) and Sonia Kovalevsky (1850–1891), who met in Berlin. Because women could not take courses at the University of Berlin, Weierstrauss agreed to privately work with the 20-year-old Russian. Based on her strong independent research and Weierstrass’s recommendation, Kovalevsky earned her doctorate in mathematics from the University of Göttingen in 1874. The mathematical collaboration between these two friends continued even when Kovalevsky returned to Russia, where she also connected with other former students of Weierstrauss.
During the nineteenth century, collaboration or marriage between scientists was one way for women to gain acceptance by the scientific community. However, in the twentieth century, mathematicians like Mary Ellen Rudin (1924–2013), married to fellow mathematician Walter Rudin (1921–2010), found it difficult to obtain jobs because of antinepotism rules. In 1992, it was widely reported that approximately 80 percent of female mathematicians were married to other mathematicians. This statistic may be explained in part by the fact that advanced study of any type is time-consuming, and people may move away from home for educational or career opportunities, such that their social circle often overlaps substantially with their work circle. It may also be true that people find personal connections arising from professionally shared interests. Scientific couples refer to the difficulty of finding jobs together as the “two-body problem,” which is also a problem in classical mechanics involving the motion of two particles.
Mathematical friendship is famously found in the life of Paul Erdös (1913–1996). The mathematical genius’s passion for the subject is illustrated by his more than 1475 academic publications with more than 500 coauthors. Erdös traveled around the globe, arriving at the homes of his friends to work on problems with them. Many such visits resulted in a mathematical research paper authored by Erdös and his host/hostess. Among these collaborators, mathematician husband and wife Ronald Graham (1935–2020) and Fan Chung (1949–) were particularly close friends who handled many of Erdös’s temporal affairs, day-to-day scheduling, and financial matters. Erdös stayed with Graham and Chung regularly, and they even built an addition onto their New Jersey home for Erdös to stay during his annual month-long visits. Similar to the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon in social network analysis, mathematicians have defined a number that signifies how closely related one is to Erdös. A mathematician has an Erdös number of 1 if he or she has written a paper with Erdös himself; an Erdös number of 2 if he or she published with someone who coauthored a paper with Erdös; an Erdös number of 3 if he or she published with someone who published with someone who coauthored with Erdös; and so on.
One of the best-known mathematicians in the twenty-first century was Terrence "Terry" Tao. While many mathematicians specialize in specific areas, Tao's knowledge and influence spanned many subject areas and concentrations in the mathematics world. Thus, he collaborated with many partners throughout his career, which began at a very young age. Most notably, Tao's collaboration with British mathematician Ben J. Green proved that prime numbers contain arbitrarily long arithmetic progressions. Their development was known as the Green-Tao Theorem. Tao also met his wife, Laura Tao, through one of the mathematics courses he taught at University of California, Los Angeles. Laura graduated and began working as an electrical engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology. The two married in 2002.
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