A Mathematician Whose Only Constant Is Change(quantamagazine.org)
quantamagazine.org
A Mathematician Whose Only Constant Is Change
https://www.quantamagazine.org/amie-wilkinsons-only-constant-is-change-20190613/
4 comments
Prof. Wilkinson was my very first math professor as a freshman at Northwestern. She was a fantastic teacher and, I think, part of the reason I decided to major in mathematics.
"To me, the fear of being seen as saying something trivial is the biggest impediment to free speech in a math classroom"
Not going to lie, this fear held me back more than a few times in college math classes.
Not going to lie, this fear held me back more than a few times in college math classes.
Same in physics. You'd think it would get better after a few semesters but it kind of became one of the constants during my studies. Especially in math 1-4 and in almost every theoretical physics lecture I attended. The worst was quantum field theory with a close second in classical mechanics. Most students, the tutors and the professors somehow really liked to appear superior. Asking things in general during a lecture was almost frowned upon in most cases. Nobody wanted to acknowledge their "inadequacy". I vividly remember the faces of people looking with elitist impatience (for a lack of a better term) at those who dared to ask for a different explanation or a repetition if something was unclear.
I took a class from Amie. Brilliant researcher!
Immediately thought of Ian Malcolm from Jurassic Park on reading this title.