Frames of Mind

These are extracts from the film “Thinking Space”.

How do mathematicians think? This 60 minute documentary film features nine UK-based mathematicians offering insights into their mathematical thinking across a broad range of mathematical research fields.

Through explorations of their various thought processes, the film portrays mathematicians who are grappling with advanced mathematical ideas. We are presented with the concepts of imagination, intuition, and wonder, as well as rigorous mathematical deduction.

The film features Kevin Buzzard, Peter Donnelly, Tim Gowers, Martin Hairer, Roger Penrose, Caroline Series, Richard Thomas, Reidun Twarock, and Karen Vogtmann.

The film was commissioned by The London Mathematical Society, as part of its 150th Anniversary Celebrations.

(Please click on the images to view the extracts.)

Kevin Buzzard Professor of Pure Mathematics, Imperial College London Algebraic Number Theory Kevin talks about the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture	Peter Donnelly FRS Professor of Statistical Science, University of Oxford Director of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics Peter talks about a genetic map of the UK
Tim Gowers FRS Royal Society Research Professor, University of Cambridge Fields Medal 1998 Combinatorics Tim talks about quasi-randomness in combinatorics	Martin Hairer FRS Regius Professor of Mathematics, University of Warwick Fields Medal 2014 Stochastic analysis Martin talks about the challenge of a hard problem
Roger Penrose FRS Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics, University of Oxford Mathematical physics Roger talks about the idea of a trapped surface	Roger Penrose FRS Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics, University of Oxford Mathematical physics Roger talks about his non-periodic tilings
Caroline Series FRS Emeritus Professor of Mathematics, University of Warwick Hyperbolic geometry Caroline talks about the contraction mapping theorem and fractals	Richard Thomas FRS Professor of Pure Mathematics, Imperial College London Algebraic geometry Richard talks about the Göttsche conjecture
Reidun Twarock Professor of Mathematics, University of York Mathematical biology Reidun talks about non-crystallographic symmetry in viruses	Karen Vogtmann Professor of Pure Mathematics, University of Warwick Geometric group theory Karen talks about cohomology