Recountings

Traces the history of the MIT Department of Mathematics through conversations with a group of its senior members. This book reveals much about the motivation, path, and impact of research mathematicians in a society that owes so much to this little understood and often mystified section of its intellectual fabric.

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This book traces the history of the MIT Department of Mathematics—one of the most important mathematics departments in the world—through candid, in-depth, lively conversations with a select and diverse group of its senior members. The process reveals much about the motivation, path, and impact of research mathematicians in a society that owes so much to this little understood and often mystifying section of its intellectual fabric. At a time when the mathematical experience touches and attracts more laypeople than ever, such a book contributes to our understanding and entertains through its personal approach.