Modern Mathematicians

by Harry Henderson

Includes biographies of thirteen people who made significant contributions to modern mathematics, including Charles Babbage, Sofia Kovalevskaia, Julia Bowman Robinson, and John H. Conway.

Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction

Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace
George Boole
Georg Cantor
Sofia Kovalevskaia
Emmy Noether
Srinasa Ramanujan
Stanislaw Ulam
Shiing-Shen Chern
Alan Turing
Julia Bowman Robinson
Benoit Mandelbrot
John H. Conway

Index

139 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1995

Reviews

[Alejandro Teruel · Rating 2 out of 5]

A curious selection of "modern" mathematicians presumably written to stimulate an interest in the subject in secondary school students. According to the jacket, the book:

...profiles 12 men and women whose contributions to the field of mathematics revolutionized modern thought and technology. Their lives trace the growth of modern mathematics -from the early "technologization" [sic] of mathematics such as the construction of the first computer, to the development of higher mathematical theory necessary for modern technological advancement.

Actually the book consists of twelve chapters and an introduction but profiles thirteen mathematicians since Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage share the first chapter. The book is clearly biased towards computers, since seven of the profiles highlight key contributions to the area (Charles Babbage, Ada Lovelace, George Boole, , Stanislaw Ulam, Alan Turing, Benoit Mandelbrot and John Conway). This bias maks it impossible to agree with the author´s introductory premise stating that the chapters "...will give you a good taste of the diversity of modern mathematics". One walks away from the book believing modern mathematics basically either contributes to the development of computer science, physics (Sofia Kovalevskaia, Emmy Noether, Julia Bowman Robinson, Shiing-Shen Chern) or both (Stanislaw Ulam). The only exceptions to this bias are the inclusion of Georg Cantor (concept of infinity) and Srinasa Ramayana (number theory).

The definition of "modern" is very idiosyncratic -six of the mathematicians were born in the nineteenth century and one (Charles Babbage) at the end of the eighteenth century. It is also a book slanted towards mathematicians who worked in the United States or in the United Kingdom, the sole exception to this bias being Sofia Kovalevskaia who worked in Germany and in Russia. Most of the mathematicians were born in Europe except for Julia Bowman Robinson (USA), Srinasa Ramanujan (India) and Shiing-Shen Chern (China). The selection includes a noteworthy effort at gender representation -four of the mathematicians (Ada Lovelace, Sofia Kovalesvkaia, Emmy Noether and Julia Bowman Robinson) being women and the author clearly mentions Turing´s homosexuality.

The profiles are basically biographical in nature. They include a brief, but unfortunately frequently confusing description of key contributions, a chronology of each mathematician and a short list of further readings. Most of the diagrams are quite unhelpful. The chapters I enjoyed most were those on women mathematicians, Srinasa Ramanujan, Stanislaw Ulam, Alan Turing and John Conway.

In short, an interesting effort which, in my opinion, unfortunately falls far short of its stated objectives.

[Trever · Rating 3 out of 5]

Older book, I bought this book just for a reference for my students to have in class of modern mathematicians of the time. Hopefully students will be inspired, I wish it had more of story feel instead of a reference feel of the book.