mathematics archive

MIT solves gravity-defying bird beak mystery - As Darwin showed nearly 150 years ago, bird beaks are exquisitely adapted to the birds' feeding strategy. A team of MIT researchers has now explained exactly how some birds use their long, thin beaks to defy gravity and transport food into their mouths. May 15, 2008

Mathematics hosting conference May 12-13 - MIT professor Thomas Mrowka and seven other speakers will present topics ranging from quantum gravity and its connection with probability theory to the solution of two recent conjectures, the Kodaira conjecture and the Weinstein conjecture. May 7, 2008

Edward Lorenz, father of chaos theory, dies at 90 - Edward Lorenz, an MIT meteorologist who tried to explain why it is so hard to make good weather forecasts and wound up unleashing a scientific revolution called chaos theory, died April 16 of cancer at his home in Cambridge. April 16, 2008

MIT conference celebrates women in math - Women have traditionally been scarce in university math departments, but a conference at MIT this weekend will celebrate those who have succeeded in math and encourage more to pursue careers in the field. April 7, 2008

Researchers rip into 'wallpaper problem' - Frustrated by tape that won't peel off the roll in a straight line? Angry at wallpaper that refuses to tear neatly off the wall? A new study by an MIT mathematician and others shows that wallpaper is simply obeying the laws of physics. March 30, 2008

Film loosely based on MIT blackjack team opens Friday - The movie "21," a fictional work loosely based on the story of the MIT blackjack team that won millions of dollars from casinos across the country, opens in theaters Friday. March 28, 2008

MIT third overall in Putnam math competition - MIT's math team made a strong showing at the William Lowell Putnam intercollegiate mathematics competition, finishing in third place. Two MIT math majors finished in the top six: sophomore Qingchun Ren and junior Xuancheng Shao. March 27, 2008

MIT's crossword king girds for annual battle of wits - Teamwork is encouraged in the MIT math department when it comes to solving New York Times crossword puzzles, but one person usually stays on the sidelines: professor Kiran Kedlaya--"he's too good," says the head of the department. February 22, 2008

American Mathematical Society honors Lusztig - George Lusztig, the Norbert Wiener Professor of Mathematics, has been awarded the 2008 Leroy P. Steele Prize for Lifetime Achievement. January 16, 2008

Schoolteachers get a 'lift' at MIT Lincoln Laboratory - A voice in a high school classroom issues a challenge familiar to math teachers everywhere: "What can you do with this stuff anyway?" For one, you can help control airport runway warning lights--and that's just what math teacher Dan Gabriner did. January 4, 2008

Bazant among Popular Science's 'Brilliant Ten' - Popular Science has named Martin Bazant, associate professor of applied mathematics, one of its "Brilliant Ten" scientists for 2007. Bazant was awarded the distinction for his theoretical work on microfluidics, which can be used to build "labs on a chip." October 24, 2007

Predicting the future of the past tense - Verbs evolve and homogenize at a rate inversely proportional to their prevalence in English, according to a formula developed by MIT and Harvard University mathematicians using evolutionary principles to study our language over the past 1,200 years. October 15, 2007

Institute of Medicine elects Brown - Emery N. Brown, M.D., a professor in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology and in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, has been elected to the Institute of Medicine. October 13, 2007

Research helps convert brain signals into action - MIT researchers have developed a new algorithm that unifies seemingly disparate approaches to prototype neural prosthetic devices, the apparatuses that convert brain signals into action for paralyzed patients or amputees. October 2, 2007

Baseball program hits home run for learning - What is David Ortiz' on base percentage? How do you figure it out? Dice-K's ERA? A program launched at MIT this summer is taking advantage of boys' love of baseball to get them excited about science and mathematics. July 26, 2007

Lecturers top the iTunes U top ten - Professor Walter Lewin's lectures are legendary, and now his lectures and others from MIT are accessible worldwide through Apple's iTunes U. MIT lectures on physics, psychology, math and architecture have recently made the iTunes U top ten list. July 25, 2007

MIT gumshoes solve "throbbing" oil mystery - Something surprising happens when you mix mineral oil and detergent, and squeeze a drop of the mixture onto a small dish of water. Now MIT Professors Roman Stocker and John Bush are able to explain this heretofore mysterious reaction. July 17, 2007

MIT encryption pioneer wins Marconi Prize - MIT Professor Ronald L. Rivest, who helped develop one of the world's most widely used Internet security systems, has been named the 2007 Marconi Fellow and prize-winner for his pioneering work in the field of cryptography, computer and network security. July 17, 2007

Mathematics awards - Recent achievements by members of the MIT community. June 6, 2007

MLK professor teaches 'excitement' of math - Akalu Tefera, the Martin Luther King Jr. Visiting Professor for 2006-2007, is enthusiastic about passing along his love for mathematics, and has mentored undergraduate students in cutting-edge research. May 2, 2007

Five from MIT are Guggenheim Fellows - Five members of the MIT faculty have been awarded Guggenheim Fellowships for 2007. They are Edmund Bertschinger, Erica Funkhouser, Michel X. Goemans, Erika Naginski, and Anne Whiston Spirn. April 11, 2007

Math says voters win with 'winner take all' - For individuals and small groups to have the democratic power to elect the president fairly, presidential elections must be scored by winner-take-all states--not in a single giant national district too large for small numbers to turn, contends MIT's Alan Natapoff. April 10, 2007

MIT reveals the tangle under turbulence - MIT researchers report that they have visualized for the first time a convoluted tangle underlying turbulence. This work may ultimately help engineers design better planes, cars, submarines and engines. March 28, 2007

Congress commends E8 math team - A major mathematical feat by a team of 18 scientists, including two from MIT, has received a commendation from Congress, one week after the work made international headlines after being unveiled at MIT. March 28, 2007

Math research team maps E8 - An international team of 18 mathematicians, including two from MIT, has mapped one of the largest and most complicated structures in mathematics. If written out, the calculation would cover an area the size of Manhattan. March 18, 2007

Mrowka receives Veblen geometry prize - Professor of mathematics Tomasz Mrowka received the 2007 Oswald Veblen Prize in Geometry, one of the highest honors in the field of geometry, on Jan. 6. February 7, 2007

Intern navigates 'fast fashion' world - Juan Correa spent six months as an intern at Zara, an international Spanish clothing manufacturer. But don't ask him if short skirts are "in" next season--the graduate student in the Leaders for Manufacturing Program (LFM) wouldn't know. December 20, 2006

MIT math model could aid natural gas production - MIT engineers have developed a mathematical model that could help energy companies produce natural gas more efficiently and ensure a more reliable supply of this valuable fuel. November 21, 2006

'Father of Fractals' takes on the stock market - Benoit Mandelbrot is world-famous for making mathematical sense of irregular shapes--clouds that are not round, mountains that are not cones, coastlines that are not smooth, and now, stock markets that are not as simple as previously thought. November 16, 2006

Work may aid study of collagen ailments - An MIT researcher's mathematical model explains for the first time the distinctive structure of collagen, a material key to healthy human bone, muscles and other tissues. The new model shows collagen's structure from the atomic to the tissue scale. November 14, 2006

George B. Thomas, calculus textbook author, dies - George B. Thomas, a mathematician who turned a one-year teaching appointment at MIT into a 38-year career and whose well-regarded textbook has been used around the world, died Oct. 31 of natural causes in State College, Pa. He was 92. November 8, 2006

Strang receives three teaching prizes - During his 50-year career at MIT, Professor Gilbert Strang (S.B. 1955) of the Department of Mathematics has become one of the most recognized mathematicians in the world, thanks to his expertise in both teaching and writing. September 25, 2006

Hockfield urges investment in math, science literacy - MIT President Susan Hockfield told a national panel Sept. 14 that the future of the economy is at stake if the U.S. doesn't beef up the number of college students majoring in math and better prepare high school graduates for college. September 15, 2006

Mathematics awards - 2006 Awards listings. June 7, 2006

Undergraduate scholarships awarded - Three MIT undergraduates are among the 323 students recently named Barry Goldwater Scholars. June 7, 2006

Algorithms put to use in oil hunt - Mathematical procedures developed by MIT researchers and teams at Shell International Exploration and Production may soon help energy companies locate new sources of oil many kilometers underground. May 17, 2006

Readings, films portray math genius - The intellectual life of the self-educated Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan and his tumultuous relationship with University of Cambridge Professor G.H. Hardy have inspired stage and screen writers with ties to MIT. May 3, 2006

Singer's Killian lecture puts geometry in perspective - Mathematicians and physicists at MIT have much to bring them together, thanks in large part to work done by Isadore Singer during his long career, which earned him this year's James R. Killian Jr. Faculty Achievement Award. March 28, 2006

Warbling whales speak a language all their own - Researchers led by an MIT graduate student have now mathematically confirmed that whales have their own syntax that uses sound units to build phrases that can be combined to form songs that last for hours. March 22, 2006

Singer to give Killian lecture March 23 - Institute Professor Isadore Singer, winner of the 2005-2006 James R. Killian Jr. Faculty Achievement Award, will deliver the Killian Award lecture on Thursday, March 23. March 20, 2006

Examples of Nature-al selection - Research by MIT scientists and colleagues has graced the cover of Nature four times over the last month and a half with coverage on short gamma-ray bursts, Z-DNA, the HapMap project, and how certain insects navigate water surfaces. November 16, 2005

Stroock meets Stroock fellow - When Ray Sidney '95, an early software engineer at Google, decided to make a gift for an endowed fellowship, he established the Stroock-Hertz Fellowship in honor of his MIT math professor, Daniel W. Stroock. October 26, 2005

It's a bug's life: MIT team tells moving tale - MIT mathematicians have discovered how certain insects can climb what to them are steep, slippery slopes in the water's surface without moving their limbs--and do it at high speed. September 28, 2005

Top HS students explore math, space, more - Eighty-eight of the world's top high school students spent six weeks at MIT this summer engaged in advanced research ranging from the mathematics of an Escher painting to a space mission for mice. August 11, 2005

Mathematics awards - 2005 awards listings. June 1, 2005

Isadore Singer wins Killian Award - Institute Professor Isadore Singer, a world-renowned mathematician known for his work covering a broad spectrum of geometry, analysis and algebra, is MIT's James R. Killian Jr. Faculty Achievement Award winner for 2005-2006. May 23, 2005

MIT math team wins Putnam - For the second year in a row, the MIT math team has finished first in the celebrated William Lowell Putnam intercollegiate mathematics competition. April 13, 2005

Math whiz fights terror with smarts - Dr. Jonathan D. Farley, the man who keeps the hit TV show "Numb3rs" mathematically honest, is also using a rarified math theory to correct a flaw in standard counterterrorism thinking. April 6, 2005

Kaiser, Sipser to head departments - Professor Chris Kaiser of the Department of Biology and Professor Michael Sipser of the Department of Mathematics have been named heads of their respective departments. March 30, 2005

Junior wins national award for math research - Mihai Patrascu, a junior majoring in mathematics, has been named the national Outstanding Male Undergraduate by the Computing Research Association. January 21, 2005

Senior wins national math prize - Reid Barton, a senior in mathematics at MIT, has been awarded the 2004 Frank and Brennie Morgan Prize for Outstanding Research in Mathematics by an Undergraduate Student. January 3, 2005

Folding, folding, folded - An MIT audience--rapt, eager, enthusiastic--hung on every word from the lips of visiting origami master Robert Lang as he demonstrated the basics of the paper-folding art and described the mathematics behind it. November 15, 2004

Origami master Lang will visit MIT - MacArthur Fellowship winner Erik Demaine, assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science, will host Robert J. Lang, one of the world's leading masters of origami, as an artist in residence at MIT from Nov. 11 to 17. November 10, 2004

MIT brains and brawn light up Athens - MIT mathematician Nate Ackerman offers proof that scientists can combine brain and brawn as he competes in Athens with the top wrestlers in the world. He joins an assortment of MIT alumni and faculty at the 2004 Olympics. August 17, 2004

Mathematics - 2004 awards listings. June 2, 2004

Whitehead of mathematics dies at 85 - George W. Whitehead Jr., professor emeritus in MIT's Department of Mathematics, died on Monday, April 12 at the age of 85. April 15, 2004

Singer shares Abel Prize - Institute Professor Isadore M. Singer shares the 2004 Abel Prize for the discovery and proof of a theorem that is a landmark of mathematics. March 31, 2004

Professor wins math prize - Professor Isadore M. Singer shares the 2004 Abel Prize for the discovery and proof of a theorem that is one of the great landmarks of mathematics. March 25, 2004

Fractal tendrils - Martin Z. Bazant, associate professor of applied mathematics, and his group applied a new mathematical twist to a model called diffusion-limited aggregation (DLA), creating a remarkable image. February 4, 2004

Fractal tendrils - Martin Z. Bazant, associate professor of applied mathematics, and his group applied a new mathematical twist to a model called DLA, creating a fractal image. February 2, 2004

Father, son love art, science - Martin Demaine, a 61-year-old artist/craftsman turned computer scientist, teams up with his son and other researchers at MIT on projects that connect art with mathematics. October 8, 2003

Professor wins MacArthur - A 22-year-old MIT professor whose work fuses art, science, work and play is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, known as the "genius" grant. October 8, 2003

Professor wins "genius" grant - A 22-year-old MIT professor whose work fuses art, science, work and play is the recipient of a $500,000 MacArthur Fellowship, commonly known as the "genius" grant. October 6, 2003

Solution of walking-on-water mystery - MIT researchers report that they now understand how the insects known as water striders skim effortlessly across the surface of ponds and oceans. August 6, 2003

Mathematics awards - All award recipients are mathematics majors. June 4, 2003

Mathematics fluency increased - The cornerstone of science and engineering education, freshman and sophomore mathematics courses are almost as basic at MIT as knowledge of the English language. May 14, 2003

Prof started college at 12 - When he was 12, Erik Demaine talked himself into Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, despite having no grades or academic record to speak of. February 26, 2003

Students fold in contest - Seven students brought 15 origami sculptures for consideration in a juried exhibition of the art form, which uses only folding techniques. February 26, 2003

Math department awards - The Math department recognized six with awards. June 5, 2002

Math students finish 2nd - The MIT team finished second for the second consecutive year in the prestigious William Lowell Putnam intercollegiate mathematics competition. May 15, 2002

Students earn math awards - The Department of Mathematics bestowed honors on five students. June 6, 2001

Strang's math lectures on web - When Professor of Mathematics Gian-Carlo Rota died two years ago, his legendary lectures were lost with him. March 21, 2001