GERALD LAMBEAU, GRIGORI PERELMAN, AND ME: Congratulations to MIT's Esther Duflo for winning the John Bates Clark medal, awarded to the nation’s most promising economist under the age of 40 for her work on poverty and development.
I use this as an opportunity to announce my campaign for the other major under-forty-in-academia prize, for which this is my last year of eligibility -- the quadrennial Fields Medal. It will be awarded again this August to the world's most promising mathematicians under the age of 40. Let me be blunt: I believe I should be one of the front-runners for this award, as anyone who has seen my two-weeks-out fantasy football playoff permutation trees will attest. (Also, Lucy can totally do her times-table through 10x10, and she's still in first grade.)
But if merit's not enough, maybe threats will do: if the International Congress of Mathematicians refuses to award me with that to which I am entitled, I will have no choice but to divide a number by zero, right here on this blog. Yeah, I said it: I will not abide by your silly laws about what I can and cannot do any longer. If the ICM doesn't want me to tell the truth about what 9 ÷ 0 really equals, then they will honor me appropriately.
I don't get why you'd simultaneously beg for the award and pumping up other prospective Fields awardees. Lucy has another few go-rounds of eligibility, just scrub the mention from the entry before the voters see it.
ReplyDeleteThis isn't begging; it's politely stating my qualifications (including as a teacher). Lucy's got eight more cycles of eligibility after this year. (See? MORE MATH.)
ReplyDeleteTrue. Then again, Perelman doesn't have a daughter, so it's vacuously true that he's a way better teacher than you. [Insert joke about multiplication by zero here.]
ReplyDeleteDear ICM: I tremble in fear at the horror that could result if Adam divides a number by zero. Please, please, please: save us all! XOXOXO -- Jenn.
ReplyDeleteI just found out that this year's middle-school-aged Mathcounts team at spaceboy's school consisted entirely of girls. When I did Mathcounts in the 80s, I was, both years, the only girl from my school who even tried out for the team, let alone went to the competition. I hope I'm not about to be accused of misogyny here, but I found this year's team very exciting. Go Esther Duflo and the math girls! Go Lucy and sconstant's mathy daughter!!
ReplyDeleteDon't tell him what he can't do!
ReplyDeleteYeah, my MathCounts team was a total sausage-fest.
ReplyDeleteOmg, that comment made me spit miso soup all over my desk.
ReplyDeleteIn related news, do you still get their newsletter? It's kind of touching, these 22 years later.
I think that I was also the only girl on my Mathcounts team.
ReplyDeleteBoth of my nieces love numbers and math. We raise 'em right, y'all.
My mother used to invoke Snow White because of this issue when my sister and I were (at separate times) on jr. high science and math teams, because of this issue and because my sister and I were tall for our ages and the boys had not yet shot up
ReplyDeleteI actually do math on my blog. Regularly, even. Which reminds me that I've got a half-written post about a dice game somewhere. But Glee is on tonight, so we won't speak of that.
ReplyDeleteI don't call Mathcounts in California. I did Academic Decathlon, but other than speech/debate and (in earlier years, spelling bees) -- which, due to the teacher, I wouldn't have done under any circumstance whatever -- that was the only sort of academic competition I recall.
ReplyDeleteYeah AcaDeca ftw!
ReplyDeleteMy parents still have my 10 medals from regional AcDec my Senior year (7 subjects, individual, Team, and Team Super Quiz), and my 3 from state. Special bonus points if you can name the three subjects I failed to medal in.
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