Barry Mazur wins the National Medal of Science
Last Friday my thesis advisor Barry Mazur got awarded the National Medal of Science (hat tip Mike Hopkins).
President Barack Obama awards the National Medal of Science to Dr. Barry Mazur of Harvard University, Friday, Feb. 1, 2013, during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington. The awards are the highest honors bestowed by the United States Government upon scientists, engineers, and inventors. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
One of many wonderful things about Barry is how broad his interests are (in addition to being profoundly deep). I remember that, in order to get time to talk math with him in grad school, he’d bring me to poetry readings so we could discuss math during the intermission. Last semester he taught a class with people from the law school about the shifting concept of evidence in different fields.
That guy is awesome.
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Wikipedia’s list of mathematicians who have won the award since it was introduced in 1959:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_National_Medal_of_Science_laureates#Mathematical.2C_Statistical.2C_and_Computer_Sciences
I blogged this happy occasion too: http://quomodocumque.wordpress.com/2013/02/03/barry-mazur-wins-the-national-medal-of-science/
Do you know why Mazur never won the Fields medal?
Sounds like the Mazur I know: I once listen to him give a talk at a conference outside of his field — Model Theory — and he totally rocked the house.