Interview with Heisuke Hironaka [a great Japanese mathematician speaks informally]

Notices of the American Mathematical Society ^ | October, 2005

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A wide-ranging and fascinating interview with world-class Japanese mathematician Heisuke Hironaka (Fields Medal recipient in 1970). The interview was conducted for the Notices of the American Mathematical Society by senior writer and deputy editor Allyn Jackson.

Hironaka discusses his early life and education (including his lousy piano playing), his Fields Medal work, his encounters with other great mathematicians and his views on the nature of mathematics.

When he says he's not a genius, don't believe him.

This is another 'by-hand' conversion of an original PDF file to HTML (so it may contain a typographical infelicity or three). Download a PDF version of this interview to view the many photos included in the Notices edition:

Interview with Heisuke Hironaka

[And for the intrepid with <irony> a few free hours on their hands </irony>, here's a rather compact (no pun intended) presentation of Hironaka's work by János Kollár:

"Resolution of Singularities – Seattle Lecture" (PDF format).]

 

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Ping

[BipolarBob]

He is best known for his 1964 work on the resolution of singularities of algebraic varieties over a field of characteristic zero

ought times ought is ought. Jethro Bodeen

[snarks_when_bored]

ought times ought is ought. Jethro Bodeen

Uh, ain't that "nought times nought is nought"?

[SuziQ]

Something in which you might be interested!

[BipolarBob]

Yeah, I have a cold. Slurring my words, improper enunciation, . . . looking around the room . . . . red-faced . . .

[Ken H]

"Pi are round."

--Jed Clampett

[snarks_when_bored]

...looking around the room . . . . red-faced . . .

Me, too. Why in the heck do I know that, anyway???

[snowsislander]

Thank you for posting this excellent article.

[BipolarBob]

"Cornbread are square, pi are round" Jed Clampett

[blake6900]

zzzzzzzZZZZzzzzzzzz........zzzzzzzzZZZZzzzzzzz........

[BipolarBob]

No griping about how you lost two precious minutes out of your life reading this article. It was plainly titled.

[snarks_when_bored]

zzzzzzzZZZZzzzzzzzz........zzzzzzzzZZZZzzzzzzz........

No soup sushi for you!

[Graymatter]

"Singularities are all over the place."
Too true!

[blake6900]

No griping about how you lost two precious minutes out of your life reading this article.

Two minutes?! It took me two minutes to figure out the guy's name.

[To Hell With Poverty]

Only when you're in a relationship.

[TIGHTEN]

"For instance, now I am teaching the first-graders Euler’s formula, the relation between the number of faces and edges and vertices of a polygon. They are amazingly intuitive and can guess the answer."

Oh man we're in trouble.

[LoneRangerMassachusetts]

I had a linear algebra professor who drilled into me the meaning of the Null Space endlessly. At the end of the course I had about as much understanding of null spaces as I had from any Marxist explaining the meaning of the Negation of the Negation. I have nothing, non, no, nada, naught, or ought to do with intellectuals anymore. There ain't nutting there.

[snarks_when_bored]

"For instance, now I am teaching the first-graders Euler’s formula, the relation between the number of faces and edges and vertices of a polygon. They are amazingly intuitive and can guess the answer."

Oh man we're in trouble.

Nah.

Seventeen Proofs of Euler's Formula: V-E+F=2

[TIGHTEN]

Our first-graders are being taught Euler's formula?