Word: maths
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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This is just one of the math jokes that can be found in Tangents, Harvard's new and only student-run math magazine...
...first Black tenured professor at Harvard, advised the leaders of the Black Students Association [BSA] that they should be "formulating week-by-week and month-by-month numerous projects to assist that long-haul task of outfitting the Black poor and underclass youth to read adequately, to manage math, to replace vulgarity with beauty, [and] to overcome hypermacho, anarchic and anti-humanistic values and personal identities...
Elkies says he tries to convey three significant ideas about mathematics to his students: "A) Math is something people can enjoy, B) they enjoy it for a good reason and C) it's still going on." Elkies actively challenges the idea that mathematicians today only fine-tune existing theory; he contends that many interesting problems remain unsolved...
During his undergraduate years at Columbia, Elkies focused more on research. Wait a minute--Columbia? What made this math whiz choose New York's pale imitation of Harvard? "Poor judgment?" says Elkies, by way of explanation. "I was glad I was able to finish in only three years...
...teaching, Elkies perennially addresses a variety of topics. "In many departments," he ics. "In many departments," he explain, "You have courses that are the domain of Prof. X. In the math department, out of 15 halfcourses you teach in five years, 12 could be different courses...