Mathematics Genealogy Project (MGP)

• SUMMARY: The Mathematics Genealogy Project maps professional relationships among mathematicians.

Two fundamental components of the fabric of human societies are family and community. For reasons like innate socialization, a sense of responsibility, and loyalty, an individual is compelled to be a part of a larger organization. In a similar way, the desire to distinguish one’s place in the community, the wanting to carve out a place in the family, the urge to preserve the past for future generations, and numerous such factors motivate an individual to seek a family history. Consequently, throughout history, individuals have spent much time and effort on genealogy in pursuit of their own ancestries and to reconstruct trees of ancestors.

Similarly to an individual’s desire to construct a family genealogy, many professionals also have the desire and motivation to pursue their professional history. This desire is particularly the case for the professions or crafts in which some form of “apprentice” and “master” relationships are the main mode of transferring knowledge or skills from one generation to the next. Professional mathematics is a prime example of such a vocation. Particularly since the Renaissance, a prospective mathematician usually studies and conducts research under the supervision or tutelage of a master mathematician whose guidance and knowledge are major factors in obtaining successful certification to become a recognized mathematician—the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Mathematics.

Mathematicians usually have very high regard for this type of transfer of knowledge and professionhence, Ph.D. advisers are given special respect. In mathematical events, novice mathematicians’ introductions typically include their adviser’s name or novice mathematicians introduce themselves as students of their adviser. Some even go as far as calling their Ph.D. adviser their “mathematical” parent. In such an environment, it is natural for mathematicians to inquire about their mathematical ancestries. Another factor that contributes to this curiosity is, in the vastness of mathematics, finding the intertwining connections between the various subdisciplines and tracing back the original sources and motivations of the problems or concepts being studied.

Birth of the Project

The Mathematics Genealogy Project is a natural outcome of such curiosity and is the brainchild of Professor Harry B. Coonce. Although several small groups of mathematicians or some individual mathematicians had information on the genealogy of numerous prominent mathematicians, until Coonce’s initial work in the late 1990s, no attempt was undertaken to construct a genealogy tree for a large group of mathematicians. In 1997, realizing that there was no central location where the information on mathematics Ph.D. students and their advisers was available, Cooncewhose adviser was Malcolm S. Robertsonstarted a website for this purpose. Upon his retirement in 1999, he devoted all his time to the project and began systematic data collection and formation of a genealogy tree for all mathematicians, which has become the Mathematics Genealogy Project (MGP). In 2003, the MGP moved from Minnesota State University to North Dakota State University (NDSU). The project’s primary responsibility rests with the NDSU Department of Mathematics. In late 2009, Coonce retired from being the managing director of the project, and in October 2009, the American Mathematical Society became the sole designated partner of NDSU for MGP.

Construction of a genealogy tree is a complex process that uses historical records and other reliable sources to demonstrate kinship. Because of its unique position and its desire to provide the family tree for all mathematicians, this task is particularly difficult for the MGP. It is a searchable database in which information for each entry contains all relevant professional information about that individual. The project’s mission statement from the project website indicated this ambitious goal clearly:

The intent of this project is to compile information about ALL the mathematicians of the world. We earnestly solicit information from all schools that participate in the development of research-level mathematics and from all individuals who may know the desired information. It is our goal to list all individuals who have received a doctorate in mathematics. For each individual, we plan to show the following: the complete name of the degree recipient, the name of the university which awarded the degree, the year in which the degree was awarded, the complete title of the dissertation, and the complete name(s) of the advisor(s).

In order to provide all this information as accurately as possible, the project managers gather data from reliable sources. The main sources of data are information provided from the Ph.D.-awarding institutions and the Dissertation Abstracts. Another important source is the mathematical community itself; voluntarily, many mathematicians provide valuable information that is not accessible to the project managers. In any case, before any entry is included in the project database, it is scrutinized for possible errors. However, some erroneous information can still be found. Some are because of changes in the individual's records, such as name changes because of marriage, revised spellings because of a move, name changes of institutions, and some genuine errors. These errors are other reasons that the project administrators rely on the mathematical community to monitor the entries and report and correct the errors.

Besides providing information on the genealogy of mathematicians, the MGP aimed to be a source of other relevant data and a hub of connections to other related projects. Therefore, the project website also contained interesting features of this kind. It provided links to databases or search tools, like MathSciNet, and links to other institutions that carry relevant information. The site also provided interesting information on the mathematicians who are most prolific and have a large number of descendants.

Mathematicians, naturally, are inclined to seek a mathematical structure within any object on which they cast their eyes. As is seen in the Extrema section of the project website, the MGP tree happens to have a special nonplanar graph structure. Researchers are using the data to investigate graph theoretic and visualization issues as well as social issues, such as the role of mentoring in advisee productivity among advisers with the most students or descendants. It is possible that a new research area of mathematics on the study of structures within the MGP tree may emerge.

In 2020, the project migrated to a cloud server to ensure ample and safe storage of data. Data is updated each night, and the project continues to operate with the support of the American Mathematical Society as a branch of the NDSU Department of Mathematics.

Bibliography

Adams, Jon. “A Trace of Greatness.” Times Higher Education, 6 May 2010, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/features/a-trace-of-greatness/411471.article. Accessed 11 Nov. 2024.

Dunne, Edward. "The Mathematics Genealogy Project Moves to the Cloud." AMS Blogs, 29 June 2020, blogs.ams.org/beyondreviews/2020/06/29/the-mathematics-genealogy-project-moves-to-the-cloud. Accessed 1 Oct. 2024.

Jackson, Allyn. “A Labor of Love: The Mathematics Genealogy Project.” Notices of the American Mathematical Society, vol. 54, no. 8, 2007.

Malmgren, R. Dean, et al. “The Role of Mentorship in Protégé Performance.” Nature, vol. 465, no. 7298, 2010, pp. 622-26. doi:10.1038/nature09040.

Miller, Frederic P., et al., eds. Mathematics Genealogy Project. Alphascript Publishing.

Mulcahy, Colm. "The Mathematics Genealogy Project Comes of Age at Twenty-one." Notices of the AMS, vol. 64, no. 5, 2017, pp. 466-70. www.ams.org/journals/notices/201705/rnoti-p466.pdf.

North Dakota State University. “The Mathematics Genealogy Project.” North Dakota State University, Department of Mathematics, www.genealogy.ams.org. Accessed 11 Nov. 2024.