Prominent non-mathematical work of mathematicians

Question

First of all, sorry if this post is not appropriate for this forum.

I have a habit that every time I read a beautiful article I look at the author's homepage and often find amazing things.

Recently I read a paper of Andrew Hicks and when I opened his homepage I found many links about his invention: Flawless wing mirrors (car mirror).

(Image Source)

I would not be surprised if this invention was made by a non-mathematician. His mirror is an amazing invention to me because every day I see it, but didn't know its inventor is a mathematician! Anyway, I want to ask

Question 1: Are there mathematicians who have done outstanding/prominent non-mathematical work like inventions, patents, solving social/economical/etc. problems, papers in these areas, etc.?

Of course, one can say that almost all technology nowadays is based on the work of mathematicians, but I'm asking for specific contributions/innovations.

I want to ask a similar question (Maybe it will be useful for those who are looking for a job!):

Question 2: Which mathematicians are working in non-mathematical areas/companies?

Note: Please add to your answers the name and the work of the mathematician.

Not clear if it fits, but Emanuel Lasker was a Chess World Champion and a mathematician. I understand that he proved some important results in Commutative Algebra. — Nick S, Aug 20 '20 at 15:42
You may consider Sir Isaac Newton. Apart from his mathematical discoveries he did many non mathematical inventions. He built telescope, worked with Alchemy, was involved in politics. — Alapan Das, Aug 20 '20 at 15:48
A good question here would need good delineation of "mathematician" and of "non-mathematical work". In the absence of that, I find this vague and I've downvoted — , Aug 20 '20 at 17:32
The question is too vague. Before 18 century, all mathematicians had non-mathematical jobs since there were no mathematical jobs.So probably you mean modern times. It is also not clear who exactly is counted as a mathematician. — Alexandre Eremenko, Aug 20 '20 at 23:24
@Piyush if we put Unabomber on the list, then we should also make room for André Bloch, mathematician and triple murderer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AndréBloch(mathematician) — Gerry Myerson, Aug 20 '20 at 23:50
@GerryMyerson, not necessarily. Bloch was a murderer first, and did his mathematics while institutionalized (not to mention that murder isn't usually considered "non-mathematical work"). On the other hand, Kaczynski was a mathematician first, and his later non-mathematical work was a sociological thesis on the inevitability of human enslavement by industrial society. — Ray Butterworth, Aug 21 '20 at 12:04
@Ray Are you saying murder IS considered mathematical work?! — Harry Wilson, Aug 21 '20 at 12:28
@HarryWilson There’s mathematical work, there’s non-mathematical work, and then there are other things than work. — Emil Jeřábek, Aug 21 '20 at 16:20
I’m not sure whether Jean van Heijenoort would qualify. He was a Trotskyist activist and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_van_Heijenoort?wprov=sfti1 says he also was personal secretary and bodyguard of Trotsky. — godfatherofpolka, Aug 21 '20 at 17:47
@HarryWilson, The bombings and deaths were mostly an irrelevant side effect (from TK's point of view). That was simply a means of getting his work published. Remember, he was abused by his parents and as an under-aged student by his university professors, and was tortured and brainwashed by the CIA's "MK Ultra" mind-control program. His mathematical publications were legitimate, though not major breakthroughs, his Industrial Society and its Future is a not unreasonable sociological analysis, its purpose being to present the world with its only possible chance of avoiding inevitable slavery. — Ray Butterworth, Aug 21 '20 at 18:22
@RayButterworth: This comment thread is rapidly getting both off-topic and speculative. (For instance, the accusation that your comment contains about Kaczynski's parents is not supported by the Wikipedia article about Ted Kaczynski, and neither by a quick google search that I did for his name.) I do not want to be rude, but I would really appreciate it if we could keep this comment thread focussed on the question rather than on claims that are speculative or off-topic (or both). — Jochen Glueck, Aug 21 '20 at 21:15
Elena Ventsel (Russian: Елена Сергеевна Вентцель) was a mathematician working in probability theory and operations research. Besides her scientific output, she also authored several monographs and textbooks. And she was also an accomplished fiction writer publishing under the pen name of Irina Grekova (Russian: Ирина Грекова). By the way, this pen name is mathematical: if you write this name as the first name initial and the last name, it's I.Grekova (Russian: И.Грекова) -- from "igrek" (Russian: "игрек"), which is the Russian name of the letter "y". — zipirovich, Aug 22 '20 at 00:12
I wonder if Brendan McKay's work on debunking the Bible Code counts. See: John Safran vs God - Bible Code. — Rebecca J. Stones, Aug 22 '20 at 02:38
No pun intended, but isn't Persi Diaconis quite high up in Magic Circles? — Geoff Robinson, Aug 23 '20 at 09:00
@Geoff I thought of Persi, I agree he'd be a good answer. (But I've already posted four.) — Gerry Myerson, Aug 23 '20 at 12:52
Why no John von Neumann? One of the most prominent and versatile mathematician of 20th centure. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_von_Neumann — Beta, Aug 25 '20 at 17:16
Surely there must be mathematicians who are also famous for their work as translators? I can well-imagine mathematicians translating old writings just for fun, and I feel like I've heard stories, but can't think of any off the top of my head. — David White, Aug 27 '20 at 10:12
Perhaps, you could append your Question by the alphabetic list of mathematicians that were already mentioned in this thread. — Wlod AA, Nov 27 '20 at 20:09

Mirco A. Mannucci · Answer 1 · 2020-08-22T15:46:16.720

Samuel Eilenberg, one of the key mathematicians of the XX Century (co-created category theory, systematized homological algebra, opened new roads in topology, etc), was a good example:

he had (at least) TWO LIVES, with only one thing in common, his short name, Sammy.

In the first one he was the mathematician, whereas in the other he was a formidable expert and collector of Chinese and far-eastern ancient pottery (and other artifacts as well). He was world-famous in his second life just like he was in his first one (when he died he donated his immense collection to NYC, you can still admire it here).

What is funny (and a bit odd ) is this: Sammy did not like to mix his two lives at all. At his funeral, the two groups (mathematicians and art collectors) collided for the first and last time. Nobody could believe that Prof. Eilenberg, the Math Genius, and Prof. Eilenberg, one of the greatest authorities in ancient eastern arts, were one and the same man.

POST SCRIPT

I have done some research on Sammy's life as art collector: apparently, he was struck by the beauty of indian art during a trip to India. From that point on, he decided that he had to assemble a collection of eastern art and craftmanship, which he did in the next 30 + years. Now I finally see what the two Eilenberg had in common: a passion for aesthetics, for the formal beauty of structures. Alex Heller wrote the following words to honor his Teacher Sammy:

As I perceived it, then, Sammy considered that the highest value in mathematics was to be found, not in specious depth nor in the overcoming of overwhelming difficulty, but rather in providing the definitive clarity that would illuminate its underlying order. This was to be accomplished by elucidating the true structure of the objects of mathematics. Let me hasten to say that this was in no sense an ontological quest: the true structure was intrinsic to mathematics and was to be discerned only by doing more mathematics. Sammy had no patience for metaphysical argument. He was not a Platonist; equally, he was not a non-Platonist. It might be more to the point to make a different distinction: Sammy’s mathematical aesthetic was classical rather than romantic.

One might say that, because of his contributions to the theory of finite automata, he was also a computer scientist which, if we don't consider this part of mathematics, is a third domain of specialty. — Gro-Tsen, Aug 21 '20 at 00:40
@Gro-Tsen Then I might also add Edward Spanier to the list. Also more known as a mathematician; but published fundamental, and much cited, work in theoretical computer science; mostly with S. Ginsburg. Eilenberg's work in automata theory is clearly written and still inspirational after almost 50 years, but most TCS-Researchers know that he is a famous mathematician too. However, Spanier, I guess most TCS people do not know that he is a mathematician at all. At least it is not that well-known. — StefanH, Aug 21 '20 at 14:56
@StefanH A small thing, but it's Edwin, not Edward, Spanier. — Danny Ruberman, Aug 24 '20 at 01:00

score 63 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 20 '20 at 15:10

63

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832-1898), better known as Lewis Carroll.

answered Aug 20 '20 at 15:10

Noam D. Elkies

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please expand, Noam :-). surely you can name a few things done/invented/made by Dodgson which you find outstanding... – Franka Waaldijk Aug 20 '20 at 15:12
35

Well, probably his universally-known fictional books qualify for "outstanding/prominent non-mathematical work", or am I missing something? – Francesco Polizzi Aug 20 '20 at 15:15
2

I think the issue is whether this is a prominent non-mathematical work of a professional mathematician, or a prominent mathematical work of a non-mathematician, or if that matters for this question. Certainly in this case his novels are more famous than his math. – Brady Gilg Aug 20 '20 at 16:45
35

@BradyGilg His day job was as a mathematician. That most people don't know it doesn't make him any less of one :). – Denis Nardin Aug 20 '20 at 16:47
1

Fun fact: The mad hatters in Alice in Wonderland were meant to make fun of other mathematicians he knew of. – Christopher King Aug 21 '20 at 12:28
3

If we had to quibble, it would be by saying that a mathematics lecturer at Oxford at the time wasn't expected to be a mathematician in the modern sense (i.e., a research mathematician). He did do a bit of research (I once used a lemma on his on determinants), but apparently didn't really try to be part of the research community (and there was such a thing in the UK at the time, though nothing compared to France or Germany). At any rate, that's really quibbling - Noam's answer is of course right, and we should be happy to call Dodgson a mathematician. – H A Helfgott Aug 23 '20 at 09:36
19

I've also used Dodgson condensation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodgson_condensation in one of my own papers. He certainly counts as a research mathematician in practice even if he technically wasn't one on paper. – Terry Tao Aug 23 '20 at 16:53
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The White Knight in Looking Glass is often thought to be his caricature of himself. But the part of the White Knight's speech beginning with 'The name of the song is called "Haddocks' Eyes"' I've seen used as a good illustration of pointers and indirection in computer science. – Steve Costenoble Aug 29 '20 at 22:28

score 51 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 20 '20 at 15:23

51

Noam D. Elkies, who gave an answer to this question, is himself also an accomplished composer.

answered Aug 20 '20 at 15:23

gmvh

2,758

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Interesting. Is he currently active in mathematics? – C.F.G Aug 20 '20 at 15:37
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OMG. He is also winner of the 1996 World Chess Solving Championship!! duo to wiki. – C.F.G Aug 20 '20 at 15:40
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I think it would be topologically satisfying if Noam could write something about the achievement in physics of some mathematician gmvh ;-). – Peter - Reinstate Monica Aug 21 '20 at 08:05
Although he states his rating is nothing to brag about, he's also a chess master. Take it from a guy that has been playing casually since age 5, that isn't an easy feat. – Paul Burchett May 09 '22 at 04:46

Luiza Ramos · Answer 4 · 2020-08-21T15:24:00.060

51

I have noticed, after reading all previous answers, that no woman mathematician was listed.

My first impression is that most women mathematician born before 1960 (or maybe until today), are outstanding in non mathematics areas as they must have been activist for just having the chance of studying. Many of them were not even recognized or could work as mathematicians, because universities didn't hire women professors. A sad example is that of Emmy Noether who taught for seven year without income from the university. But besides this, there are many women contributing for medicine and biology, social equity, and inclusions of minorities in mathematics. But they are ghosts, as we do not see or know them. Here is a list with some of them: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_women_in_mathematics

Here are two examples: Sophie- Germain, who, besides being a important mathematician of her time, contributed to elasticity theory and to philosophy - her philosophical work were admired and cited by Auguste Comte. She has struggled to study in her time but were recognized by the great mathematicians Lagrange and Gauss, even after they discovered that she was not Monsieur LeBlanc. ( Her history is worth reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_Germain )

More recently, we have Eugenia Cheng, who is a category theorist and an accomplished pianist. She is also a writer engaged in mathematical popularization and has a column in The Wall Street Journal.

edited Aug 21 '20 at 15:24

answered Aug 21 '20 at 11:55

Luiza Ramos

1

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I went to a mathematics lecture by Eugenia once and she played the keyboard in the middle of it ;) – Hollis Williams Aug 22 '20 at 00:08
5

Kovalevskaya had manifold interests and wrote a novel, but apparently it was not very good (to go by my memories of what is stated in Ann Hibner Koblitz's excellent biography, which I unfortunately don't have at hand). Perhaps we need a separate question on "first-rate mathematicians who can't focus and keep doing non-outstanding work in other fields", taking care of course not to forget elements of the set who are women. – H A Helfgott Aug 23 '20 at 09:27
Wouldn't Ada Lovelace qualify? Does writing software fall under non mathematical work? – Walter Mitty Aug 23 '20 at 21:16
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"Kovalevskaya had manifold interests" Pun intended, @HAH? – Gerry Myerson Aug 23 '20 at 23:35
3

Lilian Pierce has also introduced musical interludes in her mathematical talks. She won the 2018 Sadosky Prize for research that "spans and connects a broad spectrum of problems ranging from character sums in number theory to singular integral operators in Euclidean spaces" including in particular "a polynomial Carleson theorem for manifolds". She is an associate professor of mathematics at Duke University, and a von Neumann Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study. By age 11 she began performing professionally as a violinist. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lillian_Pierce – Gerry Myerson Aug 23 '20 at 23:39
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We will probably need a separate, (very) long list of "mathematicians who are talented instrumentalists". – H A Helfgott Aug 24 '20 at 08:12
@HAHelfgott I see, you like being in lists:) – Fedor Petrov Sep 15 '20 at 09:25

score 45 · Answer 5 · answered Aug 20 '20 at 22:49

45

Fields medallist Cédric Villani is a French politician.

answered Aug 20 '20 at 22:49

Gordon Royle

12,288

19

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mathematician-politicians has a long list of people who "achieved notability both as academically-trained mathematicians (with a graduate degree, or published in mathematical journals) and also as elected politicians (at a state or national level)." Daniel Biss was a member of the Illinois Senate. Kathleen Ollerenshaw was Lord Mayor of Manchester. Paul Painlevé was Prime Minister of France. – Gerry Myerson Aug 20 '20 at 23:58
6

The mathematician Borel was a cabinet member under the mathematician Painleve, who was Prime Minister of France. – Zarrax Aug 21 '20 at 03:28
I don't believe that a mathematician can work as politician successfully. because if you take a glimpse of what most of politicians have done during the history by deceiving, lying, non-logical offering against other countries, hypocrisy, etc (e.g. USA and Br or even Fr) while a mathematician cannot left his/her logic. – C.F.G Aug 21 '20 at 05:23
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@C.F.G there is no shortage of deceiving, lying, hypocritical and/or illogical mathematicians. – Gerry Myerson Aug 21 '20 at 07:33
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@C.F.G There is nothing stopping a mathematician from asserting something he or she believes to be untrue in the hope of ultimately gaining something from this deception ("suppose for a contradiction that ... ") – Gordon Royle Aug 21 '20 at 08:15
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Chalabi#Western_education – StefanH Aug 21 '20 at 15:05
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Paul Painlevé was also the first person to be an airplane passenger in France. – Richard Stanley Aug 21 '20 at 16:28
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@GerryMyerson also worth noting that there do exist some quite successful non-deceiving, non-lying, non-hypocritical, non-illogical politicians (although to be fair, there is in fact a shortage of such). – Dan Romik Aug 22 '20 at 05:32
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@C.F.G: Mathematicians are human beings, with biases and beliefs like every other human being. For example about the current economical system: is it efficient? How can we fix/improve it? What fraction of mathematicians read peer-reviewed academic literature on economics? – Taladris Aug 23 '20 at 03:35
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@C.F.G It's very easy to do that without leaving logic: Axiom 1: I want money; Axiom 2: I want power; Axiom 3: Me > anybody else. ¯_(ツ)_/¯ – Red Banana Aug 23 '20 at 04:58
Of course they are human but watch this for a moment. – C.F.G Aug 23 '20 at 05:32
The politic is not similar to math. A mathematician can work alone successfully, but being successful politician depend on the other powerful countries. Of course it is not too hard being successful politician if you are US alliance. I don't want to to turn discussion into politic. – C.F.G Aug 23 '20 at 07:32
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But he hasn't done anything as a politician. Seating in the parliamant to sleep and gulp down your 5000 euros (after tax) every month can't count as "proeminent non-mathematical work". – Libli Sep 16 '20 at 20:16
@Libli I confess that I only have an existence proof of his political career, and know nothing about its success or otherwise. – Gordon Royle Sep 16 '20 at 22:44

score 41 · Answer 6 · answered Aug 21 '20 at 00:06

41

Omar Khayyam was a Persian mathematician, astronomer, philosopher, and poet. As a mathematician, he is most notable for his work on the classification and solution of cubic equations, where he provided geometric solutions by the intersection of conics. Khayyam also contributed to the understanding of the parallel axiom. As a poet, he gave us the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam – "A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread—and Thou."

answered Aug 21 '20 at 00:06

Gerry Myerson

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+1. Rubaiyat in MIT website? – C.F.G Aug 23 '20 at 06:25
Yes, that's the one. – Gerry Myerson Aug 23 '20 at 06:33
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He was also one of the contributors to Solar Hijri calendar which is more accurate than the Gregorian calendar. (The GC has 1 day non-accurate after 3320 years while SHC has 1 day non-accurate after 3770 years!!) – C.F.G Aug 27 '20 at 07:43
1

I think it is not clear that the mathematician Khayyam is the same as poet Khayyam. at least in Iran, I hear arguments about it between historians. – ali Jul 21 '21 at 18:30

მამუკა ჯიბლაძე · Answer 7 · 2020-08-20T16:56:43.987

40

Jim Simons - probably best known to mathematicians for his work on the secondary characteristic classes developed various mathematical models for market trading that have been highly successful. He is an outstanding philanthropist, using much of the income from his financial engineering work to support lots of research activities through e. g. the Simons foundation: the Simons investigators awardees list includes such names as Aaronson, Aganagic, Bhargava, Daubechies, Eskin, Kapustin, Katzarkov, Kitaev, Mirzakhani, Okounkov, Ooguri, Poonen, Rouquier, Seidel, Tao, ...

edited Aug 20 '20 at 16:56

answered Aug 20 '20 at 15:45

მამუკა ჯიბლაძე

17,468

6

By "best known" I assume you mean best known published mathematics? The Medallion Fund, Renaissance Tech, and the Simons foundation are more well known overall by a factor of thousands. – Brady Gilg Aug 20 '20 at 16:39
1

@BradyGilg Thanks, tried to clarify. Feel free to edit it, it is community wiki – მამუკა ჯიბლაძე Aug 20 '20 at 16:45
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From the known histories, the early strategies used by Medallion Fund (which became the basis for Renaissance Technologies) were derived basically by James Ax. Later strategies were created by Elwyn Berlekamp. It seems Simons' contributions were more in the business and management aspects. Not saying this to lessen him. Realistically, given the lack of success Berlekamp had later in finance, management (and hiring) practices may be more significant than actual strategies. I think this is also more inline with the intent of the question. – Chan-Ho Suh Aug 21 '20 at 03:24
@Chan-HoSuh Robert Mercer is an electrical engineering PhD who also made significant contributions to Renaissance Tech, but much greater contributions to digital image processing. I did not know about James Ax. Thank you! – Ellie Kesselman Jul 27 '21 at 14:42

score 36 · Answer 8 · edited Aug 11 '22 at 05:22

36

Anna Kiesenhofer is a mathematician at Lausanne. She works in PDE, and has nine publications listed at researchgate.

She just won a gold medal in cycling at the Tokyo Olympics.

edited Aug 11 '22 at 05:22

Martin Sleziak

4,608

answered Jul 25 '21 at 13:16

Gerry Myerson

39,024

4

see also https://meta.mathoverflow.net/a/5102/11260 – Carlo Beenakker Jul 25 '21 at 13:58
This deserves a separate thread, on mathematicians who are into sports. Incredible achievement! – Rajesh D Jul 29 '21 at 02:32

score 33 · Answer 9 · answered Aug 21 '20 at 05:38

33

Emanuel Lasker was a great mathematician and is regarded as one of the best chess players ever. If it counts.

answered Aug 21 '20 at 05:38

freakish

101

Lasker is mentioned in one of the comments on the original post. – Gerry Myerson Aug 21 '20 at 07:28
11

I think it's appropriate for that comment to be turned into an answer, especially since it's CW. – Tim Campion Aug 21 '20 at 11:42
2

And indeed World Chess Champion from 1894 to 1921, the longest period of time anyone has been World Chess Champion. – Rosie F Aug 23 '20 at 11:47
1

Interesting! I knew him first as a chess player - I didn't know that he was also a mathematician. – Zubin Mukerjee Aug 24 '20 at 19:36
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Emanuel Lasker was a great chess player, one of the best ever, and a not insignificant mathematician: he proved a basic result on ideal theory - it's familiar (in a more general form due to Noether) to anybody who has taken a course in algebraic number theory. – H A Helfgott Sep 16 '20 at 13:29
I think @HAHelfgott's comment gets it right: not a great mathematician, but a not insignificant mathematician. – Nov 25 '20 at 15:55
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Another way to put it is that he was someone who had an excellent paper a couple of years after his thesis, unfortunately never got a permanent job, and decided to focus on other things (including one at which he was the greatest of his age). – H A Helfgott Nov 25 '20 at 19:02
Max Euwe was also a wolrd champion in Chess, had a PhD in mathematics and was a professor of Computing Science at Rotterdam U. – Nick S Nov 28 '20 at 20:40
Here is a link to another answer mentioning Emanuel Lasker. – Martin Sleziak Aug 11 '22 at 05:25

score 32 · Answer 10 · answered Aug 21 '20 at 13:30

32

Tom Lehrer published a couple of papers in mathematical statistics, and taught Mathematics at University of California, Santa Cruz for many years, but is undoubtedly better known for his three albums of humorous songs.

answered Aug 21 '20 at 13:30

Gerry Myerson

1,097

11

Let us not forget his work on analytic and algebraic topology of locally Euclidian metrization of infinitely differentiable Riemannian manifolds. – Aurelio Aug 21 '20 at 14:19
10

@Aurelio : And this, he knew from nothing! – gspr Aug 21 '20 at 14:40
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Incidentally, Lehrer has recently put all his lyrics in the public domain, and made them available for download until 2024. https://tomlehrersongs.com – Gerry Myerson Nov 25 '20 at 22:28

score 31 · Answer 11 · answered Aug 20 '20 at 18:54

31

Bertrand Russell was a mathematician well-known for his philosophical and political work.

answered Aug 20 '20 at 18:54

Tim Campion

60,951

22

Bertrand Russell was a philosopher who did also some math. His work in philosophy is still taught, his work in mathematics is not. – Michael Greinecker Aug 20 '20 at 21:42
15

@Michael The Principia are still a well-researched subject. The interest in it is by no means just historical. – Andrés E. Caicedo Aug 20 '20 at 23:11
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@MichaelGreinecker : Russell's type theory is still sometimes taught since type theory is the foundation of certain programming languages and proof assistants. – Timothy Chow Aug 20 '20 at 23:13
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@TimothyChow: those programming languages and proof assistants are based on descendants of Church’s type theory. Russell’s type theory was very different, and I’ve never heard of it being taught in this connection. That said, I agree that Principia continues to be very relevant. – Peter LeFanu Lumsdaine Aug 21 '20 at 00:26
@AndrésE.Caicedo Can you point me to some modern mathematical research on PM? – Michael Greinecker Aug 21 '20 at 06:51
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@MichaelGreinecker The question is about "prominent non-mathematical works of mathematicians", not "non-mathematical works of prominent mathematicians". If someone dismissed your own work as "not being taught anymore" in 2070, would you think this were appropriate? He wrote a three-volume book on the foundations of mathematics, he was a mathematician (among other things). – Najib Idrissi Aug 21 '20 at 07:12
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@NajibIdrissi My point is that by all reasonable standards Russell was a philosopher who also did some math (with Whitehead) that grew out of his philosophical work. TO me this answer reads a bit like "Edward Witten is a mathematician well-known for his work in physics." – Michael Greinecker Aug 21 '20 at 07:40
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@MichaelGreinecker If a Fields medalist does not deserve the title "mathematician" by your standards, I am not sure we are going to get anywhere with this discussion. I don't know why you are so insistent that if someone is to be described as a mathematician then that's all they should be. – Najib Idrissi Aug 21 '20 at 08:43
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@MichaelGreinecker Surely Russell's paradox is still relevant (even if it may be the Russell-Zermelo paradox...). – Peter - Reinstate Monica Aug 21 '20 at 08:55
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@NajibIdrissi I have no problem with calling Witten a mathematician in many contexts, his Fields medal is obviously why I have chosen him as an example. I have a problem with calling someone a "a mathematician who also did X" if X was what the person did primarily. I would find it less objectionable to describe Russell as a mathematician and a philosopher instead of describing him as a mathematician that also did philosophy. It is belittling other fields and that is what I object to. – Michael Greinecker Aug 21 '20 at 09:00
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@Peter-ReinstateMonica You are right. Proving Frege's system inconsistent was of major mathematical importance. – Michael Greinecker Aug 21 '20 at 09:02
@MichaelGreinecker No one else but you wrote that anyone is "a mathematician who also did X"... The OP wrote that Russell was "mathematician well-known for his philosophical and political work" which makes it very clear that Russell is... well-known for his philosophical and political works, implicitly not his math. Since your objection is about phrasing more than substance, at least quote things correctly... – Najib Idrissi Aug 21 '20 at 09:04
@NajibIdrissi My objection is about substance. If we consider all instances in which someone whose primary work lied outside of mathematics but who did also math as an example, the list would certainly explode. I am sorry if understood what I wrote as a direct quote. – Michael Greinecker Aug 21 '20 at 09:10
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I don't understand the distinction, can a person not be both a philosopher and a mathematician? (Leibniz is the best example). – Hollis Williams Aug 22 '20 at 00:07
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You know you’ve made it when people spend inordinate amounts of time arguing whether you were a mathematician who did philosophy or a philosopher who did mathematics, all the while completely ignoring your Nobel Prize in Literature. – Dan Romik Aug 22 '20 at 04:42
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@DanRomik: Not when it is idolization rather than actual acknowledgement of real contribution. – user21820 Aug 22 '20 at 06:34
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Russell himself was apparently insecure about his status as a mathematician. According to Littlewood (in the posthumous edition of his Miscellany) "He had a secret craving to have proved some straight mathematical theorem." Littlewood goes on: "As a matter of fact there is one: $2^{2^a} > \aleph_0$ if $a$ is infinite. Perfectly good mathematics." – Tom Harris Aug 27 '20 at 17:05

score 30 · Answer 12 · answered Aug 21 '20 at 06:42

30

From Wikipedia: Hermann Günther Grassmann (German: Graßmann, pronounced [ˈhɛʁman ˈɡʏntɐ ˈɡʁasman]; 15 April 1809 – 26 September 1877) was a German polymath, known in his day as a linguist and now also as a mathematician.

answered Aug 21 '20 at 06:42

Kostya_I

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7

May be it should be said that he left Mathematics disappointed by the reception of his work and because his posibilities of teaching math were very low due to really bad reports, for example by Kummer. His book was almost ignored for more than two decades; now it is considered the father of linear algebra. – Xarles Aug 22 '20 at 15:21
@Xarles, have you read Kummer's report, and if so, do you know if it can be found online? What you wrote is a common narrative; I also heard another one - that Kummer's report was completely accurate, and whatever in Grassmann's writing we now deem important was buried in the many pages of his unclear, unrigorous and hardly readable text. I have no opinion of my own though. – Kostya_I Aug 24 '20 at 20:54
1

When I looked into Grassmann's book Die Lineale Ausdehnungslehre, ein neuer Zweig der Mathematik from 1844, my impression was, that he aimed to explain his ideas and results to philosophers like Kant. The second edition Die Ausdehnungslehre. Vollständig und in strenger Form begründet from 1862 seems already like a standard text on linear algebra. – Peter Michor Aug 30 '20 at 06:19

score 29 · Answer 13 · edited Aug 21 '20 at 20:31

Felix Hausdorff wrote philosophical works, essays, poems and plays under the pseudonym Paul Mongré. Let me quote from the information of the Hausdorff Center for Mathematics in Bonn:

https://www.hcm.uni-bonn.de/about-hcm/felix-hausdorff/about-felix-hausdorff/

Hausdorff pursued, especially during the early years in Leipzig, a kind of double identity: as Felix Hausdorff, the productive mathematician, and as Paul Mongré. Under this pseudonym, Hausdorff enjoyed remarkable recognition within the German intelligentsia at the end of the 19th century as a writer, philosopher and socially critical essayist....Between 1897 and 1904, Hausdorff reached the peak of his literary-philosophical accomplishment: during this period, 18 of a total of 22 works were published under his pseudonym. These included the volume of aphorisms Sant’ Ilario: Thoughts from Zarathrustra’s Country, his critique Das Chaos in kosmischer Auslese, a book of poems entitled Ekstases, the farce Der Arzt seiner Ehre, as well as numerous essays....The play was Hausdorff’s greatest literary success, as it was performed over 300 times in 31 cities.

score 26 · Answer 14 · edited Aug 22 '20 at 08:18

26

I think that the name of Archimedes immediately springs to mind. Among its inventions are the block-and-tackle pulley systems based on the lever, the screw, the parabolic reflectors used to burn Roman ships attacking Syracuse, the mechanical planetarium.

edited Aug 22 '20 at 08:18

Rodrigo de Azevedo

1

answered Aug 20 '20 at 15:19

Francesco Polizzi

65,122

1

The story of the parabolic reflectors used to burn Roman ships attacking Syracuse is not true. It is a legend. – Philippe Gaucher Aug 23 '20 at 14:17
1

The story is in Polybius, Plutarch and Lucian of Samosata. The Wikipedia page on Archimedes says that there are still an ongoing debate about its truth; however, some models of reflectors have been built demonstrating that the construction of such weapons was actually possible with the technology that Archimedes had at his disposal.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archimedes
– Francesco Polizzi Aug 23 '20 at 16:21
1

The wikipedia page mentions some experiments indeed but the weapon requires a lot of luck. A catapult or flaming arrows are far much easier to use for the same effect. – Philippe Gaucher Aug 23 '20 at 17:38

score 26 · Answer 15 · edited Aug 17 '21 at 06:39

26

Paul Painlevé was briefly prime minister of France on two separate occasions, as well as holding many other government posts including Minister of Defense. In mathematics, he is best remembered for his contributions to nonlinear differential equations.

edited Aug 17 '21 at 06:39

Hjalmar Rosengren

1,653

answered Aug 21 '20 at 03:24

Zach H

1,899
17
35

2

I mentioned Painlevé in a comment on the answer that proposed Villani. – Gerry Myerson Aug 21 '20 at 07:30
11

Before being mainly involved in politics (mostly $\ge 1910$), Painlevé had (1897-1906) a significant involvement in defending Alfred Dreyfus, see Des mathématiciens dans l'affaire Dreyfus (French) – YCor Aug 21 '20 at 16:20

score 25 · Answer 16 · edited Sep 15 '20 at 08:52

25

Gauß contributed to the development of the telegraph. Gauß was also an astronomer, metrology engineer and land surveyor.

edited Sep 15 '20 at 08:52

Logikus

43

answered Aug 20 '20 at 17:38

Michael Renardy

12,836

Really????????? – C.F.G Aug 20 '20 at 17:39
22

@C.F.G Well, I don't think it was the fundamental theorem of algebra or quadratic reciprocity that got his name attached to the unit of magnetic flux density. – Andreas Blass Aug 20 '20 at 17:48
2

Major inventions are not usually made by a single person (there were lightbulbs before Edison), and the telegraph is no exception. But Gauss made an essential contribution. – Michael Renardy Aug 20 '20 at 21:19
11

@C.F.G : Is it a coincidence that your initials are the same as Gauss's? If not, your astonishment is a bit amusing! – Timothy Chow Aug 20 '20 at 23:15
2

Some details are at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Needle_telegraph#Gauss_and_Weber_telegraph – Aug 21 '20 at 01:28

score 24 · Answer 17 · answered Aug 21 '20 at 07:52

24

Frank Ryan earned a math PhD from Rice for the dissertation "Characterization of the set of asymptotic values of a function holomorphic in the unit disc." He published two fundamental papers on the set of asymptotic values of a function holomorphic in the unit disc in Duke Mathematical Journal. [the papers, not the unit disc, were in the journal] He was an assistant professor at the Case Institute of Technology, 1967-71. He has an Erdős number of 3. He was also a lecturer in mathematics at Yale University, 1977-86.

But he is best-known as a quarterback in the National Football League, 1958-70. He led the Cleveland Browns to an NFL title in 1964.

answered Aug 21 '20 at 07:52

Gerry Myerson

1,097

2

John Urschel played in the NFL for a couple of seasons, and has some publications in Mathematics. – Gerry Myerson Aug 21 '20 at 08:02
Frank Ryan died earlier this week (thought people might like to know): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Ryan_(American_football) – David White Jan 06 '24 at 00:11

score 24 · Answer 18 · edited Oct 21 '20 at 03:01

24

Persi Diaconis is an accomplished magician, in addition to his mathematical career.

edited Oct 21 '20 at 03:01

mhum

1,625

answered Aug 23 '20 at 13:10

Geoff Robinson

42,683

score 22 · Answer 19 · edited Aug 11 '22 at 05:28

22

Martin Hairer has written a widely used professional audio editing software "Amadeus Pro" (https://www.hairersoft.com/).

edited Aug 11 '22 at 05:28

Martin Sleziak

4,608

answered Aug 22 '20 at 08:18

Scott Armstrong

1,780

10

It is amusing to note that if you find the message board for Amadeus you'll see that Martin still personally replies to every user's troubleshooting request (e.g. https://www.hairersoft.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=7697) – Scott Armstrong Aug 22 '20 at 08:20
Martin Hairer is mentioned also here: Mathematicians with both “very abstract” and “very applied” achievements. – Martin Sleziak Aug 11 '22 at 05:29

score 21 · Answer 20 · answered Aug 22 '20 at 19:13

21

I'm surprise no-one has mentioned Isaac Newton. He spent almost half his career outside academia fighting against forgery at the Royal Mint. He was also an MP and wrote a huge amount on biblical chronology, alchemy, and theology.

answered Aug 22 '20 at 19:13

Hollis Williams

4,958

score 21 · Answer 21 · edited Aug 23 '20 at 16:16

21

Harald Bohr was a member of the Danish national football team for the 1908 Summer Olympics, where he won a silver medal. The semi-final against France was 17-1.

edited Aug 23 '20 at 16:16

Rodrigo de Azevedo

1

answered Aug 23 '20 at 13:53

Jochen Wengenroth

15,438

1

Interesting result!!! – C.F.G Aug 23 '20 at 14:09
4

Interestingly, Harald Bohr played professional football also together with his older brother, Niels, who also had a prominent science career. – Uri Bader Aug 30 '20 at 10:05

score 19 · Answer 22 · answered Aug 22 '20 at 01:02

19

Ron Graham's mathematical work is probably familiar to most users of this website.

In his youth, he won a title as California state trampoline champion. In 1972 he was elected president of the International Jugglers' Association.

answered Aug 22 '20 at 01:02

Gerry Myerson

1,097

I think later on he also won regional titles in table tennis after getting destroyed by Erdos in a table tennis game and then deciding that he had to improve. – Hollis Williams Jan 14 '21 at 22:07
1

@Hol, D. J. Albers (1996) A Nice Genius, Math Horizons, 4:2, 18-23, DOI: 10.1080/10724117.1996.11974993, "[in 1963] I saw this rather senior guy of 50 [Erdos], already quite famous, playing ping-pong during one of the breaks. He asked me if I wanted to play and I agreed. He absolutely killed me! I had played casual ping-pong but I couldn't believe that this old guy had beaten me. ... I went back to New Jersey ... I bought a table, joined a club, started playing at Bell Labs, and in the State league. I eventually became the Bell Labs champion at ping-pong, and won one of the New Jersey titles." – Gerry Myerson Jan 14 '21 at 22:22
Also, I think mathematics is the only subject where someone aged 50 is an ''old guy''. – Hollis Williams Jan 14 '21 at 23:48
@Hollis I think maybe Ron meant it was (relatively) old for ping-pong. – Gerry Myerson Jan 15 '21 at 01:45

score 18 · Answer 23 · edited Aug 22 '20 at 08:26

18

Nikolai Durov, who launched Telegram with his brother Pavel Durov, has some works on Arakelov geometry.

edited Aug 22 '20 at 08:26

Rodrigo de Azevedo

1

answered Aug 22 '20 at 07:31

LeechLattice

9,421

score 17 · Answer 24 · answered Aug 20 '20 at 17:10

17

I think Greg Egan (sci-fi author) qualifies. He has a few papers on arxiv, and made the news for his work on superpermutations, which motivates the title 'Mathematician'. He is also an occasional MO-user.

answered Aug 20 '20 at 17:10

Per Alexandersson

15,598

11

I think Egan would be a great answer to a different question, of people whose profession is not "mathematician" doing good maths – Yemon Choi Aug 20 '20 at 18:08
2

@YemonChoi why don't you ask that as a separate question? I'd answer Aubrey de Grey. – Nik Weaver Aug 20 '20 at 23:05
4

@NikWeaver : That question arguably already exists. – Timothy Chow Aug 20 '20 at 23:18
1

@TimothyChow and Egan and de Grey are both answers there! Never mind, then. – Nik Weaver Aug 21 '20 at 00:16

score 16 · Answer 25 · edited Aug 21 '20 at 11:24

16

Joseph Fourier was also an Egyptologist.

edited Aug 21 '20 at 11:24

gmvh

2,758

answered Aug 21 '20 at 09:16

Marq

101

6

He was a bit more than just that. Excerpts from hiw biography on wikipedia include: "He took a prominent part in his own district in promoting the French Revolution, serving on the local Revolutionary Committee. ... Fourier accompanied Napoleon Bonaparte on his Egyptian expedition ... Cut off from France by the British fleet, he organized the workshops on which the French army had to rely for their munitions of war ... In 1801, Napoleon appointed Fourier Prefect (Governor) of the Department of Isère in Grenoble, where he oversaw road construction and other projects." – HJRW Aug 22 '20 at 11:03
4

@HJRW Equally, one should also mention Gaspard Monge, who was on the same expedition to Egypt, similarly held political appointments during the Revolution and all the while also is known for his results in geometry and as being the father of optimal transport. – mlk Aug 23 '20 at 06:34

Yemon Choi · Answer 26 · 2020-08-21T02:53:38.810

15

I am on the fence regarding whether this question should stay open, but while it does, I thought the following example might be of interest: Peter Rosenthal, perhaps best known to mathematicians for his work on subspace lattices of operator algebras (see e.g. his book with Heydar Radjavi), developed a 2nd career/mission as a lawyer.

Wikipedia link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Rosenthal

Link from comments: 2014 profile in the Toronto Star

edited Aug 21 '20 at 02:53

answered Aug 20 '20 at 18:30

Yemon Choi

25,496

4

While he definitely seems to be vocal about being left-wing, the causes he represent are more often regarding basic human rights than left-wing. E.g., he has represented many cases of police brutality; see this beautiful piece on Toronto Star: https://www.thestar.com/news/crime/2014/01/05/peter_rosenthals_passions_for_law_and_math_make_for_a_beautiful_if_different_life.html – pinaki Aug 21 '20 at 02:42
@auniket thank you for the clarification. I must admit that originally I omitted the adjective and then added it at the last-minute in a confused effort at sign-posting, since I couldn't remember the details that I'd heard from friends on the Canadian scene – Yemon Choi Aug 21 '20 at 02:49

score 15 · Answer 27 · edited Aug 21 '20 at 06:51

15

Per Enflo, a Swedish mathematician known for solving the so called ``basis problem'', one of the problems from Scottish book (about the existence of Schauder basis). Besides being a mathematician he is also known as a talented pianist.

edited Aug 21 '20 at 06:51

Denis Serre

51,599

answered Aug 21 '20 at 00:15

truebaran

9,140

I will add a link to another answer about Per Enflo. – Martin Sleziak Aug 11 '22 at 05:26

Andrei Halanay · Answer 28 · 2020-08-24T16:20:59.440

15

Otto Iulievich Schmidt is now best remembered for his polar expeditions and a geophysical institute in Russia bears his name. The English wikipedia does not mention it, but he was also one of the founders of the modern theory of groups and had a strong influence on A.G. Kurosh.

edited Aug 24 '20 at 16:20

answered Aug 21 '20 at 16:13

Andrei Halanay

830

10

Oh -- that's the Schmidt from Krull-Remak-Schmidt! – darij grinberg Aug 21 '20 at 20:07
1

In the late 1950s, I had a textbook on group theory written by O.J.Schmidt (in Russian). It was very nice. – Wlod AA Nov 27 '20 at 19:21

score 14 · Answer 29 · answered Aug 20 '20 at 18:41

Mathematician Eric Temple Bell

President of the MAA, 1931-32
Author of the book Men of Mathematics
Bell numbers, Bell polynomials
etc.

Also was a successful science fiction author under the pseudonym John Taine.

See the fascinating book
Reid, Constance, The Search for E.T. Bell, MAA spectrum, The Mathematical Association of America, 1993

Dan Romik · Answer 30 · 2020-08-29T07:01:21.573

Richard Garfield is a mathematician and former math professor who is nowadays famous as the inventor of the wildly successful card game Magic: The Gathering, and many other card and board games. Here is what Wikipedia says about his math background:

After college, he joined Bell Laboratories, but soon after decided to continue his education and attended the University of Pennsylvania, studying combinatorial mathematics for his PhD. Garfield studied under Herbert Wilf and earned a Ph.D. in combinatorial mathematics from Penn in 1993. His thesis was On the Residue Classes of Combinatorial Families of Numbers. Shortly thereafter, he became a professor of mathematics at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington.

A colleague of mine who is somewhat knowledgeable about Magic: The Gathering once claimed that the game became as successful as it was because it was invented by a mathematician who systematically set out to create the most addictive game possible. I cannot say how much truth there is to that claim.

Years ago, I visited a Penn math professor who complained that the graduate students were spending all their time in the department lounge playing card games. — Deane Yang, Nov 25 '20 at 17:21
Years ago when I was at Cambridge the graduate students spent their time in the department lounge playing Conway games. — Gerry Myerson, Nov 25 '20 at 22:21

score 12 · Answer 31 · answered Aug 21 '20 at 14:35

12

In addition to his work in number theory, Carl Størmer made important contributions to the study of the aurora borealis. Here he is conducting an experiment rather far from his blackboard:

answered Aug 21 '20 at 14:35

gspr

465

Størmer was awarded the 1922 Janssen Medal of the Paris Academy of Sciences for his work on the aurora. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janssen_Medal_(French_Academy_of_Sciences) – Gerry Myerson Feb 23 '23 at 00:27

score 11 · Answer 32 · answered Aug 20 '20 at 23:07

Gian-Carlo Rota in addition to being an influential combinatorialist was a philosopher, and his philosophical writing was not in the tradition often thought of as being closest to math ('analytic philosophy') but was rather inspired by phenomenology. Apparently this heterodoxy caused some consternation from e.g. his colleagues in the philosophy department at MIT.

Tim Campion · Answer 33 · 2020-08-30T05:03:10.747

10

Alexander Esenin-Volpin was a mathematician well-known for his work as a Soviet political dissident.

EDIT: I'm sorry for writing the above so glibly. Among other things, Esenin-Volpin was repeatedly imprisoned or else confined to mental institutions for political reasons -- according to wikipedia he spent 6 years cumulatively in either of those situations. I'd love if somebody more competent than I would write something more informative and fitting.

edited Aug 30 '20 at 05:03

answered Aug 20 '20 at 18:53

Tim Campion

60,951

3

The same can be said about Shafarevich too – მამუკა ჯიბლაძე Aug 20 '20 at 20:54
3

Can't resist mentioning a non-answer to the question: someone prominent for non-mathematical work who was a maths+physics student at university: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1970/solzhenitsyn/biographical/ – Yemon Choi Aug 22 '20 at 15:53
There was a gulf of difference between Esenin-Volpin and Schafarevich; it'd be simpler to remember Schafarewich as an outstanding mathematician and let's mercifully forget about the rest of his story. – Wlod AA Nov 27 '20 at 19:29
@WlodAA I did not say that they are similar in any other respect, except that "was a mathematician well-known for his work as a Soviet political dissident" applies to both; maybe it'd be also simpler to remember only part of what we happen to remember, so let's mercifully forget about the rest of it? – მამუკა ჯიბლაძე Nov 28 '20 at 20:08

score 10 · Answer 34 · answered Aug 21 '20 at 22:57

10

René Descartes

Mathematically you're likely to know him for Cartesian geometry.

Philosophers will know him for "Cogito, ergo sum"/"Je pense, donc je suis"

Quoting wikipedia: "Descartes is also widely regarded as one of the founders of modern philosophy." I suspect, as with Russell, people might argue Descartes was a philosopher who did a little mathematics, but ignoring the eponym of Cartesian coordinates is too hard to do.

answered Aug 21 '20 at 22:57

Anon1759

1

3

Rene Descartes walks into a bar and orders a drink. When he finishes his drink, the bartender asks him if he would like another. Descartes replies, “No, I think not,” and disappears in a puff of logic. – Gerry Myerson Aug 22 '20 at 01:07
I think Descartes did more than "a little" Mathematics – Geoff Robinson Aug 22 '20 at 09:38
1

I agree, I was just attempting to preempt similar comments to the Bertrand Russell (https://mathoverflow.net/a/369713/164087) answer. – Anon1759 Aug 22 '20 at 13:53
Descartes did much more than systematising the $(x,y)$-coordinates. It is worthwile to read his essay "La géométrie", where among other things he studies some plane curves and without much overstating prefigures algebraic geometry. – François Brunault Aug 16 '21 at 18:17

score 10 · Answer 35 · answered Aug 27 '20 at 09:38

10

Emily Riehl is a professor of mathematics at Johns Hopkins. She does transformative work in abstract homotopy theory, and has won many grants. She is also a professional Australian rules football player.

answered Aug 27 '20 at 09:38

David White

29,779

score 10 · Answer 36 · answered Nov 25 '20 at 13:41

10

Ruggero Freddi is an Italian mathematics lecturer (holding a PhD) and a former gay pornographic film actor known professionally as Carlo Masi. Here you can read his thesis.

answered Nov 25 '20 at 13:41

Hvjurthuk

573

this is not work of a mathematician. – C.F.G Nov 25 '20 at 13:43
2

@C.F.G Sorry, but now you will have to justify and explain to me why exactly do you consider that Freddi or its previous work do not qualify to be answers to what you asked. I pretty much think that it fits in both of your questions (specially the second). He is a mathematician and did "famous" work out of mathematics (unless you think that gay porn is mathematics). There is a dichotomy that I do not understand (in fact, I do but I want to expose you). So either you consider that acting in gay porn is a job or you consider that Freddi is not a mathematician. You will have to be more clear... – Hvjurthuk Nov 25 '20 at 14:20
He was not a mathematician during in his previous work. – C.F.G Nov 25 '20 at 14:22
@C.F.G He was actually forming himself to be one and in your question you never mentioned that these works have to happen at the same time. In fact, this restriction would not allow several previous answers. E.g., this would eliminate some you own answer of Glen Bredon. Villani would not qualify either because he stopped doing math (for the moment). S – Hvjurthuk Nov 25 '20 at 14:28
So either your question is ill posed and thus it should be closed because it already attracted answers that you did not mean or your problem is other. – Hvjurthuk Nov 25 '20 at 14:29
@C.F.G I am going to tell you what I think. If you consider that being gay porn actor is not a job you are plainly wrong. Otherwise, the possibility is that you consider that Freddi is not a mathematician, which is quite problematic given the fact that he holds a PhD degree based in the linked thesis. Having a PhD generally mean that you did research work in Maths and it is more than enough to be considered as a mathematician. So, unless you found a flaw in the thesis of Freddi (and even in this hypothetical case), he qualifies to your question. However, I think that your problem is different. – Hvjurthuk Nov 25 '20 at 14:32
All posts you mentioned first were mathematician then they become or did other thing. – C.F.G Nov 25 '20 at 14:36
2

@C.F.G I really think that your question is educative and deserve to stay so I will not vote to close. Your question is a place to see that one can become mathematician from other interests and can be a mathematician and something else. However, I think that having a gay porn actor in this wiki is problematic for you. I really hope that you explain yourself better. Your downvote and your comment have not being correctly justified yet and I wish that the problem does not relate to the fact that he is gay or porn actor (sadly I think that it does). It is pretty sad seeing this mentality here. – Hvjurthuk Nov 25 '20 at 14:36
2

This reminds me that Catalan mathematician and logician Angel García-Cerdaña (Cerdanya) is also a known TV actor. Am I to understand that for some reason he does not qualify for this question either? – Emil Jeřábek Nov 25 '20 at 14:39
@C.F.G Again, in your question you never mentioned that this order was necessary to keep. Your question is literally "Are there mathematicians who have done outstanding/prominent non-mathematical work like inventions, patents, solving social/economical/etc. problems, papers in these areas, etc.?" Where is the restriction that are now mentioning exactly? I don’t see it. Freddi, mathematician and former gay porn actor and gay porn actor is a non-mathematical job as I see it. – Hvjurthuk Nov 25 '20 at 14:39
You can ask a new post like "prominent non-mathematicians later become mathematician" if you are interested in. But this is distinct from mine. so pls do not comment anymore. – C.F.G Nov 25 '20 at 14:40
2

@EmilJeřábek Sadly, I think that "being gay" and "appearing naked in TV" is the real problem here. – Hvjurthuk Nov 25 '20 at 14:40
6

It's hard to interpret the downvotes on this answer as anything other than narrow-minded prejudice. Would it have been downvoted if Freddi had been a Shakespearean stage actor? – Tom Leinster Nov 25 '20 at 15:24
3

There are other people listed who did much of their non-mathematical work before they became mathematicians. This includes Persi Diaconis, Danica McKellar, and Frank Ryan – Deane Yang Nov 25 '20 at 15:36
3

@TomLeinster : I did not downvote or upvote. Narrow-minded prejudice is certainly one possible explanation for the downvote. However, I just checked several other answers, and there are downvotes in several cases which cannot be explained by prejudice (in the sense you mean it). The pattern seems to be that if the achievement is either not obviously "prominent and outstanding" or if it deviates too far from "inventions, patents, solving social/economical/etc. problems, papers" then it might attract a downvote. For example, as I write this, I note that Grothendieck attracted a downvote. – Timothy Chow Nov 26 '20 at 00:56

Ira Gessel · Answer 37 · 2021-07-22T04:58:27.403

Benjamin F. Logan was primarily an electrical engineer who spent his career at Bell Labs, but he has 37 publications listed in Mathematical Reviews. His best known mathematical work is his 1977 paper with Larry Shepp, A variational problem for random Young tableaux, in which they proved that if $L_n$ is the expected length of the longest increasing sequence in a randomly chosen permutation of $\{1,\dots,n\}$ then $\lim_{n\to\infty} L_n/\sqrt{n}\ge 2$.

Long ago when I used to go to bluegrass festivals, I sometimes saw a bluegrass fiddler named Tex Logan who played with Peter Rowan then, but had earlier played with such greats as Mike Seeger, Bill Monroe, and The Lilly Brothers & Don Stover. Tex Logan also wrote songs recorded by Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris, and Bob Dylan.

It wasn't until many years later that I learned that B. F. Logan and Tex Logan were the same person.

score 9 · Answer 38 · answered Aug 21 '20 at 07:57

9

Another politician would be Éamon de Valera, who graduated in mathematics and taught at various schools (and applied for a professorship, but without success), but then became a rather influential Irish politician.

answered Aug 21 '20 at 07:57

Toffomat

141

score 9 · Answer 39 · answered Aug 23 '20 at 06:59

9

Alexander Grothendieck was a political activist and spiritualist.

answered Aug 23 '20 at 06:59

Hans-Peter Stricker

9,628

this is what I was looking for – quasi-mathematician Sep 02 '20 at 03:02

score 9 · Answer 40 · answered Aug 23 '20 at 08:46

9

Raymond Smullyan was a

mathematician, magician, concert pianist, logician, Taoist, and philosopher.

answered Aug 23 '20 at 08:46

godfatherofpolka

139

Roland Bacher · Answer 41 · 2021-08-16T20:55:57.303

9

I think, one can add Francesco Faa di Bruno to this list, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesco_Fa%C3%A0_di_Bruno. He is to my knowledge the only beatified mathematician.

edited Aug 16 '21 at 20:55

answered Aug 16 '21 at 15:17

Roland Bacher

17,432

score 8 · Answer 42 · answered Aug 21 '20 at 15:27

Jerry McNerney (Wiki page) is a US congressperson from California, with a PhD in differential geometry.

Nowadays he's more known as a congressman than as a mathematician, but every now and then he will give quick floor speeches about math or mathematicians.

See, e.g., his tribute to Mirzakhani.

score 8 · Answer 43 · answered Aug 21 '20 at 19:30

Dutch mathematician Alexander Rinnooy Kan is also a politician and businessman. He used to be a member of the board of directors of ING Group, served as the Chairman of the Social and Economic Council that advises the government, and was a member of the senate.

According to a national newspaper, he was the most influential person in the Netherlands in 2007, 2008, and 2009.

score 7 · Answer 44 · answered Aug 21 '20 at 06:29

7

Boris Berezovsky, a Russian oligarch and government official, was a professional mathematician.

answered Aug 21 '20 at 06:29

AVK

270

score 7 · Answer 45 · answered Aug 21 '20 at 15:44

7

Tony Scholl is also a bassist with the Cambridge Philharmonic.

answered Aug 21 '20 at 15:44

Arbutus

335

Paul Burchett · Answer 46 · 2020-08-23T22:40:00.527

I've seen a couple of mentions of Emanuel Lasker, a former world chess champion. Here's his non-mathematical academic works, which include a play "History of Mankind" cowritten with his brother:

Kampf (Struggle), 1906. Das Begreifen der Welt (Comprehending the World), 1913. Die Philosophie des Unvollendbar (sic; The Philosophy of the Unattainable), 1918. Vom Menschen die Geschichte ("History of Mankind"), 1925 – a play, co-written with his brother Berthold. The Community of the Future, 1940.

In his "Kampf" he foresaw the application of game theory in 20th century social sciences. He also wrote on other games besides chess as well. Here's a list of those books.

Encyclopedia of Games, 1929. Das verständige Kartenspiel (Sensible Card Play), 1929 – English translation published in the same year. Brettspiele der Völker (Board Games of the Nations), 1931 – includes sections about Go and Lasca. Das Bridgespiel ("The Game of Bridge"), 1931.

Also, don't forget Max Euwe. Max Euwe was also world chess champion and president of FIDE (the international chess body). Dr. Euwe wrote on the Thue-Morse sequence and it implying that, according to the rules of chess at the time, a game could be played as an infinite game without resolution under certain circumstances. He taught mathematics at one point and was a professor of computer science at the Universities of Rotterdam and Tillberg.

I read somewhere that Max Euwe won some kind of amateur boxing title. Is that true? — bof, Aug 24 '20 at 01:10
http://members.tripod.com/HSK_Chess/euwe.html
I'd never heard of this before, but it is true. The link is confirmation.

He also didn't play chess professionally, but still won the world championship. — Paul Burchett, Aug 24 '20 at 02:04
It was the amateur boxing championship of Europe that Euwe won. I don't have a year though. — Paul Burchett, Aug 24 '20 at 02:14

score 7 · Answer 47 · answered Aug 27 '20 at 10:30

Daniel Biss received his PhD in mathematics at MIT in 2002, then was an Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago until 2008. He won the 1999 Morgan Prize for outstanding research as an undergraduate. However, in 2007, a serious flaw was discovered that destroyed the main results of papers he had published in the Annals of Mathematics and in Advances. He is now a State Senator in Illinois. In this position, he has worked on legislation to "allow for automatic voter registration," to "elect a number of statewide offices by ranked-choice ballot," and on healthcare, among other things.

score 7 · Answer 48 · answered Aug 30 '20 at 13:07

7

Sergio Fajardo, the former mayor of the Colombian city of Medellín, wrote a dozen papers in model theory before switching to politics.

answered Aug 30 '20 at 13:07

Santi Spadaro

4,343

Crap, I accidentally duplicated this answer in 2021 – David White Jul 09 '22 at 18:34

score 6 · Answer 49 · answered Aug 20 '20 at 19:01

6

Claude Elwood Shannon was also an inventor. I recall he also invented a rocket-powered pair of boots, but I cannot seem to find the source anymore.

answered Aug 20 '20 at 19:01

Aurelio

271

score 6 · Answer 50 · answered Oct 20 '20 at 22:59

6

The numerical analyst, Manil Suri, is also an accomplished novelist. He has written a trilogy of novels. The first of which, The Death of Vishnu, was long listed for the Booker Prize.

answered Oct 20 '20 at 22:59

M. Khan

192

I don't understand why this is down voted. He's a quite accomplished mathematician (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=lFWFsSkAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao) and an award winning novelist. Seems to fit well. – Zach H Oct 27 '20 at 20:39

score 6 · Answer 51 · answered Feb 13 '21 at 14:02

Sergio Fajardo is a mathematician who was also Mayor of Medellin after the death of Pablo Escobar, was Governor of Antioquia (the state that Medellin is in) from 2012–2016, ran for President of Colombia in 2018, and has announced plans to run again for President. In mathematics, he earned his PhD from UW-Madison and was a professor at the Universidad de los Andes and the Universidad Nacional of Colombia.

In politics, he completely revitalized the city of Medellin, building new parks and libraries, and rebranding the city. The Park of Lights is a great example. That park used to be (figuratively) the darkest place in the city. Escobar had complete control of it and any (non-corrupt) police officer who came nearby would be killed. The park contains two of the oldest buildings in the city, and they were full of squatters. Now, the park is full of life, with Colombian bamboo (Guada kindiana), tons of people, and these giant lightsaber-looking lights that run all night. It's never dark there. It's the safest place in the city. The buildings that used to house squatters now house the department of education. Fajardo also built beautiful libraries to serve the poorest neighborhoods of the city, to give children a chance at a life based around something other than drugs. He was named "best Mayor of Medellin" in 2007. Regarding his time as governor, according to Wikipedia

During his administration, Antioquia experienced the best national performance in open government, transparency and investment of oil royalties (according to the National Planning Department and the Anti corruption Office of Colombia). He was named the best governor of the country in 2015 by the organization Colombia Líder.

David White · Answer 52 · 2022-07-09T18:27:10.223

Vladimir Voevodsky. He won a Fields Medal for inventing motivic homotopy theory and proving the Milnor Conjecture and in his later years worked on homotopy type theory.

He was a world-class photographer. This is mentioned in his "in memoriam" by Friedlander and you can also see some of his photos hosted by IAS. On that page, it mentions that his photography was included in a 2011 exhibit. I've heard that some of his photos were published by top magazines, like National Geographic, but I don't know all the details. If anyone else does, please add!

score 5 · Answer 53 · answered Aug 22 '20 at 19:49

Nasīr al-Dīn al-Tūsī was a persian polymath of thirteenth century. His contribution to trigonometry includes the plane law of sines. He had a prominent place in the court of Hulagu Khan (a grandson of Genghis Khan and the founder of the Ilkhanate Empire), and benefited from Khan's patronage to found the Maragheh Observatory. The legend even has it that he was influential in persuading Hulagu to siege Baghdad in 1258 which ended the 500 years old Abbasid Caliphate.

score 5 · Answer 54 · answered Aug 27 '20 at 10:01

Gunnar Carlsson is a professor at Stanford famous for his work in K-theory, and on the Segal Conjecture in homotopy theory. He is also the President and Founder of the company Ayasdi, described as

A machine intelligence software company that offers a software platform and applications to organizations looking to analyze and build predictive models using big data or highly dimensional data sets. Organizations and governments have deployed Ayasdi's software across a variety of use cases including the development of clinical pathways for hospitals, anti-money laundering, fraud detection, trading strategies, customer segmentation, oil and gas well development, drug development, disease research, information security, anomaly detection, and national security applications.

score 5 · Answer 55 · answered Nov 25 '20 at 17:28

5

Although John Urschel is already mentioned in a comment to the answer about Frank Ryan, I think he deserves his own answer. Urschel was a football player first at Penn State and then with the Baltimore Ravens. He majored in math at Penn State and then, allegedly without the knowledge of the Baltimore Ravens, enrolled in the MIT math PhD program. Urschel will receive his PhD in spring 2021 and already has an impressive list of publications

answered Nov 25 '20 at 17:28

Deane Yang

26,941

He wasn't a mathematician before or during playing football? – C.F.G Nov 25 '20 at 17:36
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Based on the years of his publications, it appears that he did write research math papers while he was playing football at Penn State and then for the Baltimore Ravens. Given the physical and mental energy, as well as the time needed each week to prepare for a football game, this is quite remarkable. – Deane Yang Nov 25 '20 at 18:34

score 4 · Answer 56 · answered Aug 23 '20 at 10:30

4

Merely meant as an interesting and amusing fact. People are not born as mathematicians. At the age of 14, long time before his mathematical career and winning the Fields medal, Wendelin Werner played a role in 'The Passerby' at the side of Romy Schneider. She died a few weeks after the movie premiere.

answered Aug 23 '20 at 10:30

Tobsn

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"People are not born as mathematicians." -- Some do. – Wlod AA Nov 27 '20 at 19:41
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We disagree. That's fine. – Tobsn Nov 28 '20 at 09:51

score 4 · Answer 57 · answered Aug 27 '20 at 09:36

4

Art Benjamin is a professor of mathematics at Harvey Mudd College, with more than 100 publications. He is also an accomplished magician and was the 1997 American Backgammon Tour Player of the Year.

answered Aug 27 '20 at 09:36

David White

29,779

score 4 · Answer 58 · answered Aug 27 '20 at 09:44

Baruch Spinoza was a mathematician, philosopher, and physicist "involved in important optical investigations of the day." His masterpiece, The Ethics, is "written with a forbidding mathematical structure modeled on Euclid's geometry." He was an early Enlightenment thinker of the Dutch Golden Age.

score 4 · Answer 59 · answered Aug 27 '20 at 10:21

Alan Turing is a mathematician famous for his contributions to the foundations of computer science, for being a codebreaker in WW2, and for being persecuted by the UK government for being homosexual. Readers have probably heard of the Turing test in artificial intelligence. I would argue that his contributions to computer science don't count as "non-mathematical work" but that his contributions to biology do. For example, his paper The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis is highly cited and is the reason the name "Turing patterns" is used to describe zebrafish embryos.

score 4 · Answer 60 · answered Aug 27 '20 at 10:40

4

Hans Freudenthal was a famous topologist. Indeed, the Freudenthal suspension theorem is the foundational result you need to get stable homotopy theory off the ground. He also invented a language, Lincos, "to make possible communication with extraterrestrial intelligence." And he invented a famous puzzle. And an asteroid is named after him.

answered Aug 27 '20 at 10:40

David White

29,779

The famous puzzle looks pretty mathematical (though not topological) itself. – Fedor Petrov Sep 15 '20 at 09:38

score 4 · Answer 61 · answered Sep 15 '20 at 14:30

Per Enflo is famous for solving Banach's basis problem, Grothendieck's approximation problem, and the invariant subspace problem for general Banach spaces, and has other fundamental research in linear and non linear geometric functional analysis. He also has done research in population dynamics. A child prodigy as a pianist, he continues to give concerts in Europe and the United States, but you can hear him at home by creating a Per Enflo station on Spotify.

There is such an answer (although less detailed) already: https://mathoverflow.net/a/369738/4312 — Fedor Petrov, Sep 15 '20 at 15:07

score 4 · Answer 62 · answered Sep 16 '20 at 20:08

4

Patrick Billingsley, author of two well-known books in probability theory, was also a stage and screen actor.

answered Sep 16 '20 at 20:08

AntoineL

131

2

Whoa. [Preston & Logan, 1989] – Yemon Choi Sep 16 '20 at 21:19

score 3 · Answer 63 · answered Aug 22 '20 at 08:52

3

Doctor Ahmed Chalabi earned a PhD from the University of Chicago in 1969, founded Petra Bank in 1977, was sentenced in absentia in Jordan for bank fraud in 1992, and (allegedly) very successfully lobbied for the 2003 Invasion of Iraq.

answered Aug 22 '20 at 08:52

Rodrigo de Azevedo

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I think this one falls more under the "prominent figure who has a PhD in mathematics" category (as do a number of the other posts, to be fair)- but, wow! this guy has a wild life story! – Sam Hopkins Aug 22 '20 at 15:09
@SamHopkins Indeed. However, I assume that the University of Chicago would not have granted him a doctoral degree had he not made a non-trivial contribution. Perhaps I assume too much. – Rodrigo de Azevedo Aug 22 '20 at 15:10

score 3 · Answer 64 · edited Sep 16 '20 at 00:02

The book by French mathematician Jacques Hadamard, The Psychology of Invention in the Mathematical Field. The book discusses the four stages of thought:

Preparation (conscious work setting up the problem and trying to solve it)
Incubation (no conscious work on the problem)
Illumination (the fruits of incubation where an insight is received) and finally
Verification (consciously testing and verifying the insight)

Gromov's Ergobrain Program for Universal learning program:

Mischa Gromov, Great Circle of Mysteries: Mathematics, the World, the Mind, Springer (2018) doi:10.1007/978-3-319-53049-9 (see also the essay of the same name from 2015).

score 3 · Answer 65 · answered Oct 20 '20 at 22:11

Danica McKellar may not qualify as a mathematician, but (all quotes below are from Wikipedia)

McKellar studied at the University of California, Los Angeles where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree summa cum laude in Mathematics in 1998. As an undergraduate, she coauthored a scientific paper with Professor Lincoln Chayes and fellow student Brandy Winn titled "Percolation and Gibbs states multiplicity for ferromagnetic Ashkin–Teller models on ${\bf Z}^2$." Their results are termed the "Chayes–McKellar–Winn theorem". Later, when Chayes was asked to comment about the mathematical abilities of his student coauthors, he was quoted in The New York Times, "I thought that the two were really, really first-rate." For her past collaborative work on research papers, McKellar is currently assigned the Erdős number four, and her Erdős–Bacon number is six.

Also, she

wrote six non-fiction books, all dealing with mathematics: Math Doesn't Suck, Kiss My Math, Hot X: Algebra Exposed, Girls Get Curves: Geometry Takes Shape, which encourage middle-school and high-school girls to have confidence and succeed in mathematics, Goodnight, Numbers, and Do Not Open This Math Book.

Her acting career, in brief:

She played Winnie Cooper in the television series The Wonder Years from 1988–1993, and since 2010 has voiced Miss Martian in the animated superhero series Young Justice.

In 2015, McKellar was cast in the Netflix original series Project Mc2. She appears in several television films for Hallmark Channel. She is the current voice of Judy Jetson from The Jetsons since 2017 following Janet Waldo's death in 2016.

score 3 · Answer 66 · answered Oct 27 '20 at 18:43

Glen E. Bredon is the author of the programs DOS.MASTER for Apple II computers, Merlin (a macro assembler) and ProSel for Apple machines. He was the professor of mathematics at Berkley and IAS and author of worthwhile math books like

Bredon, Glen E., Topology and geometry., Graduate Texts in Mathematics. 139. Berlin: Springer. xiv, 557 p. (1997). ZBL0934.55001.

and

Bredon, Glen E., Introduction to compact transformation groups, Pure and Applied Mathematics, 46. New York-London: Academic Press. XIII,459 p. $ 21.00 (1972). ZBL0246.57017.

score 3 · Answer 67 · edited Jul 21 '21 at 04:55

3

Not so prominent I think but I'd like to mention that the MathTime Professional 2 (MTPro2) fonts were designed by Michael Spivak of Publish or Perish Inc., see here.

edited Jul 21 '21 at 04:55

José Hdz. Stgo.

8,732

answered Nov 25 '20 at 12:34

C.F.G

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score 3 · Answer 68 · answered Aug 16 '21 at 14:46

3

It has been noted already that Noam Elkies is an accomplished composer.

What I find at least as extraordinary about him is that he can hum-whistle some of Bach's two-part inventions. (Anecdotal "evidence", will remove this answer if it is false.)

answered Aug 16 '21 at 14:46

Dominic van der Zypen

45,374

score 3 · Answer 69 · answered Aug 17 '21 at 07:49

3

Marcel-Paul Schuetzenberger (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel-Paul_Sch%C3%BCtzenberger) is also an interesting example (he started as a physician).

answered Aug 17 '21 at 07:49

Roland Bacher

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score 3 · Answer 70 · answered Jul 11 '22 at 08:01

3

James Garfield submitted an original proof of Pythagoras's theorem to the New-England Journal of Education and which was published in the April 1, 1876 issue.

He taught the liberal arts and practised law, he was also a brigadier-general in the Civil War.

He was also the 20th President of the USA, inaugurated in 1881. He developed the proof whilst a member of Congress.

answered Jul 11 '22 at 08:01

Mozibur Ullah

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I'm not sure that publishing an original proof of Pythagoras qualifies someone as a mathematician. – Gerry Myerson Jul 13 '22 at 06:01
@Gerry Myerson: What does these days? Some people think that only if you dedicate your life to research level maths makes you a mathematician. I take a broader view. But then I'm a democrat. – Mozibur Ullah Aug 20 '22 at 12:35

score 2 · Answer 71 · answered Aug 27 '20 at 09:53

Andrew Blumberg, in addition to being an accomplished homotopy theorist, a full professor at UT Austin, and having published more than 60 papers, also works on issues related to geolocation data and privacy. For example, he worked on an amicus brief for a Supreme Court case.

score 2 · Answer 72 · answered Jul 11 '22 at 06:26

2

I learned this answer from another thread where the OP said it didn't quite fit.

Frank Garside did important work in the 1960s related to braid groups. He also invented what is now known as the Garside element, leading to Garside groups. Later, he was the mayor of Oxford.

In a related vein, George Reid was an algebraist who was later mayor of Cambridge in 1990-91.

answered Jul 11 '22 at 06:26

David White

29,779

My memory from my (long ago) days in Cambridge is that George Reid was more of an analyst (Banach algebras?) than an algebraist. – Jeremy Rickard Jul 11 '22 at 12:10
I confess I just copied the other answer. I don't know much about Reid's work at all. His thesis was about topological groups: https://www.genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/id.php?id=26731 Also, here's a link to his later work in government: https://aru.ac.uk/about-us/governance/strategy-and-leadership/board-of-governors/george-reid – David White Jul 11 '22 at 14:13
Which Cambridge? – Gerry Myerson Jul 13 '22 at 06:03

score 1 · Answer 73 · answered Aug 20 '20 at 17:06

1

Here is some mathematical work by someone better known for other work.

answered Aug 20 '20 at 17:06

Kim

4,084

15

Isn't this the exact reverse of what the question is asking for? – Yemon Choi Aug 20 '20 at 18:07
9

@YemonChoi Indeed, this answer should be reformulated as “Karl Marx wrote political texts that have gained some measure of celebrity”. – Gro-Tsen Aug 21 '20 at 00:59
2

Does any of this go beyond philosophical ramblings about basic definitions? Legit question -- I haven't seen the entire work. – darij grinberg Aug 21 '20 at 06:20
2

Karl Marx and the Foundations of Differential Calculus by Hubert Kennedy gives a nice discussion of Marx's investigations into calculus. At the time, the received view of the derivative (following Leibniz) was a ratio of infinitesimals, which today we would find lacking in rigor. Marx perceived this difficulty and took some nontrivial steps toward a modern rigorous account. – Timothy Chow Aug 29 '20 at 19:14

score 1 · Answer 74 · answered Aug 27 '20 at 07:35

Abu Rayhan al-Biruni (973 – after 1050) was an Iranian polymath, physicist, astronomer, natural sciences, historian, chronologist and linguist. One of the best his achievements is a method proposed and used by him to estimate the radius and circumference of the Earth almost 1000 years ago.

He was also inventor of minutes and seconds of time.

score 1 · Answer 75 · edited Aug 11 '22 at 05:11

1

Charles Kalme, a mathematician (Contributions to the Theory of Discontinuous Groups of Mobius Transformations, Ph.D. thesis, NYU, 1967) and pioneering chess programmer. His achievements as a chessplayer include winning the United States Junior Championship and playing twice in the United States Chess Championship. He was also a master of contract bridge.

edited Aug 11 '22 at 05:11

Martin Sleziak

4,608

answered Aug 29 '20 at 08:00

bof

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The well-known mathematician Henry Peter Francis Swinnerton-Dyer was also an outstanding chess and bridge player in his student days. A variation in Ponziani's Opening that he played in 1949 is cited in 10th edition of Modern Chess Openings. – Gerry Myerson Aug 29 '20 at 12:14

Mozibur Ullah · Answer 76 · 2020-11-27T21:29:04.670

There is Bertrand Russell, a logician, who had another career as a philosopher as well as an anti-war protestor. He helped publicise what was happening in Vietnam - in fact, according to Paul McCartney of the Beatles, at one point he lived on the same square or street with Russell and he had knocked on his door to introduce himself and Russell proceeded to tell him all about the war. This is, according to Paul McCartney, how the Beatles became involved in the anti-war protest movement, in particularly against the war of aggression by the USA on Vietnam.

Laurent Schwartz, a french mathematician known for his work was on distributions, was also an anti-war activist and who focused on labour activism as well on the colonial war in Algeria.

Grothendieck, who needs no introduction, was also an ati-war activist, focusing on what was then occuring Vietnam. His fater was a revolutionary socialist.

Smale was also another anti-war activist; also Solzhenitsyn and many others.

Sofia Kovalevskaya was one of the first handful of female mathematicians. She was also a writer, having written a well-received autobiography, A Russian Childhood in where she reveals she met Dostoyevsky as a young woman and did not think much of him.

Likewise, Lewis Carroll, also a logician and who wrote the best-selling Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Also Abdus Salam, who was a mathematical physicist and had a second career setting up the Triest Centre of Mathematical Physics to help te Third World get on to its feet.

And a special mention for Walter Sisulu, who studied a science degree, but after joining the ANC, was imprisoned several times, and was finally imprisoned on Robbens Island with Nelson Mandela and sentenced to twenty-five years - the same sentence as Nelson. He rose to become the ANC's Secretary-General and Deputy President of the organisation.

Russell is previously mentioned here. Carroll is mentioned here. — Noah Schweber, Nov 27 '20 at 16:26
@Noah Schweber: But with very little detail - they deserve better than that. Besides Kovalevskaya and Sisulu are not mentioned. — Mozibur Ullah, Nov 27 '20 at 16:28
Solzhenitsyn was not a mathematician. Carroll hardly one, to be honest. Sisulu only studied science, but never worked as a mathematician. There are many students in mathematics (the majority, in fact) who pursue careers not related to mathematics after graduation, so according to your view they would all qualify as answers to this question. — Alex M., Nov 27 '20 at 21:25
@AlexM: Wot about Abdus Salam - are you going to complain about him too? — Mozibur Ullah, Nov 27 '20 at 21:29
This is a community wiki big-list question for a reason. (1) If you feel some other answer has insufficient detail, add that detail to that answer, do not put it in a new answer. (2) Ideally, each answer should only give one example. If you have more people, put each in a separate answer. — Emil Jeřábek, Nov 28 '20 at 08:42

score 1 · Answer 77 · answered Aug 16 '21 at 14:36

1

Stan Wagon, whose work was featured in several Mathoverflow posts (e.g. an unexpected image, Gaussian prime spirals), has also an entry in Ripley's Believe It or Not due to his Square Wheel Bike.

answered Aug 16 '21 at 14:36

pinaki

5,064

score 0 · Answer 78 · answered Aug 20 '20 at 17:45

0

I think, John F. Nash fits in this category, because of 1994 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. (I am not aware the details of his work, I just know this because of "A beautiful mind" movie!)

answered Aug 20 '20 at 17:45

C.F.G

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The work Nash received the Nobel memorial prize for was from his Princeton PhD-thesis in mathematics. This was not non-mathematical work. – Michael Greinecker Aug 20 '20 at 21:44
2

@MichaelGreinecker: thanks for comment. So I should delete this answer but I think it is better to not to do that for those don't know this fact like me!! – C.F.G Aug 21 '20 at 14:18

Paul Burchett · Answer 79 · 2020-08-30T06:53:05.743

0

Although it is difficult to say exactly what Thales accomplished, if you take what he's given credit for it is immense. By your criteria he would qualify as an answer.

Although he lacked the rigor of proof, he was the first mathematician we attribute a mathematical result to - namely Thales' Theorem used to get the distances of ships at sea.

He was also the first philosopher. With his contention that everything is water we have the first theory that says everything is one.

Also with his contention that everything is water we have a testable claim. This makes him the first scientist.

He also was an astronomer, predicting the eclipse of May 28th, 585 BC.

He even dabbled in business, by legend. There is a famous story attributed to Aristotle, and others, about him. If true, Thales predicted the weather and foresaw a good olive harvest for the coming year. He then bought all the olive presses at a discount, and rented them out during the harvest. This would be the first recorded use of futures to turn a profit.

Legend has it that Thales was an engineer.

edited Aug 30 '20 at 06:53

answered Aug 30 '20 at 05:33

Paul Burchett

540

I think Joseph of Genesis preceded Thales in the use of futures. Seven good years, followed by seven lean years, and all that. But there's no record of Joseph making any mathematical contributions, Thales has him beat there. – Gerry Myerson Aug 30 '20 at 09:36
1

Wikipedia is incorrect then. I've also seen other sources that cite Thales as well.
The old testament reached its current form in the Persian period (538-332 BC). Thales came before that. I suppose if you believe the Bible is to be taken as a real account, then that reference would be older. However, I don't think you'll find a scholar that would argue that Thales wasn't real.
– Paul Burchett Aug 30 '20 at 09:59
Wikipedia? Who said anything about Wikipedia? – Gerry Myerson Aug 30 '20 at 12:17
1

From wikipedia, with their source on the topic: "This first version of the story would constitute the first historically known creation and use of futures, whereas the second version would be the first historically known creation and use of options."
George Crawford, Bidyut Sen – Derivatives for Decision Makers: Strategic Management Issues, John Wiley & Sons, 1996 ISBN 9780471129943
– Paul Burchett Aug 30 '20 at 12:41

score 0 · Answer 80 · answered Nov 27 '20 at 19:55

0

Albert Einstein's contribution to differential geometry was significant. One could mention also Einstein's tensor notation.

On the other hand, Einstein was an inventor, he had several inventions (patents) to his credit.

answered Nov 27 '20 at 19:55

Wlod AA

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He wasn't a mathematician I think. – C.F.G Nov 27 '20 at 20:09
If you forget that Albert Einstein was a physicist, you will see that he was a strong research mathematician (more than so many mentioned in this thread). – Wlod AA Nov 27 '20 at 20:12
1

One of his papers on math? – C.F.G Nov 27 '20 at 20:14
1

Mathematics can be recorded also outside of papers in mathematical journals. Differential geometers would direct you to Einstein's results on the affine connection. – Wlod AA Nov 27 '20 at 20:34
1

The probability theory, classical mechanics, the special relativity theory, ... ... ... are all mathematical theories these days. – Wlod AA Nov 27 '20 at 20:38
1

What is the definition of a mathematician? Who is educated in math or did some math research. Isn't? – C.F.G Nov 27 '20 at 20:41
1

Forget "educated". It's the mathematical research impact that counts. Thus, it'd be silly to skip Einstein in this thread. – Wlod AA Nov 27 '20 at 20:44

Wlod AA · Answer 81 · 2020-11-28T20:53:41.380

Professionally, Pierre de Fermat was a lawyer; he had also contributed to physics.

Henry Poincare, Solomon Lefschetz, and Raoul Boot were into engineering when they were young.

Hugo Steinhaus was serious about applications, e.g. about the different feet shapes in order to help shoe designers. The famous Steinhaus slogan was

A mathematician will do it better.

In particular, Steinhaus patented longimeter.

Karol Borsuk invented a successful game during WWII, and it helped him to survive in those hardship years.

Stan (Stanisław) Ulam was the main inventor of the H bomb. He has also invented cellular automata.

Israel Gelfand at his mature stage turned his interests toward biology and medicine.

Rene Thom in his later years became seriously interested in too many things to mention here.

Several American mathematicians, including John Milnor, worked on DOD contracts.

Topologist James Munkres made a significant contribution to the assignment problem -- it's even called Munkres assignment algorithm or Kuhn–Munkres algorithm.

A parallel processor invented by a mathematician in the US, and the technology that followed, had an impact on the fall of communism.

Greg Kuperberg was an early pioneer in the field of computer games when he was in his teens; this helped him to pay his tuition at MIT.

Did Fermat do anything prominent as a lawyer? Did Poincare, Lefschetz, Bott do anything prominent when they were "into" engineering? Did Thom do anything prominent in the unmentionable areas that interested him? Did Milnor et al do nonmathematical things on those DoD contracts? Isn't the assignment problem mathematics? Any details on the mathematician who invented a parallel processor, and how it impacted communism? — Gerry Myerson, Nov 29 '20 at 04:21
@GerryMyerso, it's mixed. OP said outstanding/prominent. But there were over 30 answers before mine, and the average level for these 30+ is way below outstanding/prominent, and overall I believe that also clearly below my answer. ### My weakest case was wonderful Bott who indeed was simply an engineering student. ... Munkres did an algorithm (Erdos would call it computer science, not mathematics). — Wlod AA, Nov 29 '20 at 07:10

MAS · Answer 82 · 2020-10-21T13:49:19.833

-2

I see nobody mentioned about John Forbes Nash, who obtained Nobel prize in Economic science for his contribution to economy. Further German Mathematician Carl Fredric Gauss, Von Neumann etc both were not only prominent mathematicians but also prominent physicist as well.

edited Oct 21 '20 at 13:49

answered Oct 21 '20 at 05:00

MAS

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Gauss was already mentioned, https://mathoverflow.net/posts/369701/revisions (I think von Neumann was already mentioned, too). – Gerry Myerson Oct 21 '20 at 12:25
@GerryMyerson, But Prof John Nash was not mentioned. – MAS Oct 21 '20 at 13:18
4

Actually, Nash was mentioned in this answer of C.F.G: https://mathoverflow.net/a/369703 – Jeremy Rickard Oct 21 '20 at 14:17
@JeremyRickard, I am confused who answered first , he or me.I answered 10 hours ago. During my answer i searched with keyword nash but got no link. That is why i answered as you see my first sentence. Anyway let it remain.I will help – MAS Oct 21 '20 at 14:56
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@M.A.SARKAR: I posted my answer 2 month ago. – C.F.G Oct 27 '20 at 18:51

Prominent non-mathematical work of mathematicians

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