back on campus, ogling a Fields Medal
(intended to post this yesterday, but internet failure prevented it)
Today was my first day back in my department after the summer break. I guess it was a sign of things to come when I tried to enter the building through the back staircase and strangely my electronic keycard didn't work. Someone came by right away, though, and let me in. Then, I walked to my office and tried my actual, physical key in my door and it wouldn't turn. I went to the secretary's to ask if the lock perchance had been changed, but she said no. Then she got out some foamy stuff, greased up the lock and it was back to working like normal. At least that obstruction had an explanation. The other one, I had inteded to demand the person in charge about, but he wasn't in his office when I went to see him.
I did get to see Wagner, talked to him for a little bit and then had lunch with him. I also saw the Polish secretary, who brought a huge box addressed to me to my office. I had gotten an email this summer about a box having arrived for me, but since there was already one waiting on my desk when I got in, I assumed it was that one. Nope, two boxes, respectively filled with back issues of the AMS Notices and the Journal of Symbolic Logic. All because I had belatedly renewed my memberships in both the AMS and ASL this summer.
At 5pm, they organized a champagne reception in honor of Cédric Villani, winner of the Fields Medal this year. He was dressed almost exactly as in this photo. He had the same frilly cloth neckpiece, but in silver, and that peculiar broach actually was an enormous gilded spider (good eyes, eigenvalue!) My goal was to actually hold the Fields Medal, but despite standing right near him several times, I only got close enough to look over someone's shoulder as he held it. That's good enough for me, considering Villani mainly showed it off to senior faculty and staff and rarely let it out of sight (it's a big disc of pure gold, after all). It felt good to be in the presence of greatness, even if I don't understand anything of what he does and it's far afield from my field. At one point, the photographer asked Villani to write some math on the board. He started writing an equation with large print, and I, Wagner and a few others found ourselves caught on the wrong side of a table and being literally herded into a corner by mathematical symbols as Villani continued scribbling furiously. I can see the headline now:
Mathematicians crushed to death in real-life demonstration of the Heine-Borel theorem
Cries of 'The intersection is not empty!' fell on deaf ears
Today was my first day back in my department after the summer break. I guess it was a sign of things to come when I tried to enter the building through the back staircase and strangely my electronic keycard didn't work. Someone came by right away, though, and let me in. Then, I walked to my office and tried my actual, physical key in my door and it wouldn't turn. I went to the secretary's to ask if the lock perchance had been changed, but she said no. Then she got out some foamy stuff, greased up the lock and it was back to working like normal. At least that obstruction had an explanation. The other one, I had inteded to demand the person in charge about, but he wasn't in his office when I went to see him.
I did get to see Wagner, talked to him for a little bit and then had lunch with him. I also saw the Polish secretary, who brought a huge box addressed to me to my office. I had gotten an email this summer about a box having arrived for me, but since there was already one waiting on my desk when I got in, I assumed it was that one. Nope, two boxes, respectively filled with back issues of the AMS Notices and the Journal of Symbolic Logic. All because I had belatedly renewed my memberships in both the AMS and ASL this summer.
At 5pm, they organized a champagne reception in honor of Cédric Villani, winner of the Fields Medal this year. He was dressed almost exactly as in this photo. He had the same frilly cloth neckpiece, but in silver, and that peculiar broach actually was an enormous gilded spider (good eyes, eigenvalue!) My goal was to actually hold the Fields Medal, but despite standing right near him several times, I only got close enough to look over someone's shoulder as he held it. That's good enough for me, considering Villani mainly showed it off to senior faculty and staff and rarely let it out of sight (it's a big disc of pure gold, after all). It felt good to be in the presence of greatness, even if I don't understand anything of what he does and it's far afield from my field. At one point, the photographer asked Villani to write some math on the board. He started writing an equation with large print, and I, Wagner and a few others found ourselves caught on the wrong side of a table and being literally herded into a corner by mathematical symbols as Villani continued scribbling furiously. I can see the headline now:
Mathematicians crushed to death in real-life demonstration of the Heine-Borel theorem
Cries of 'The intersection is not empty!' fell on deaf ears