August : Math & Americans
- Aug 1, 2025
- 5 min read
Updated: Jul 14
Moon Duchin
My motto is anything you can do one way, you can do a million ways. ~ Moon Duchin
Moon DuchinMoon Duchin is an American mathematician who works as a professor at the University of Chicago. Her mathematical research concerns geometric topology, geometric group theory, and Teichmüller theory. She has done significant research on the mathematics of redistricting and gerrymandering, and founded a research group, MGGG Redistricting Lab, to advance these mathematical studies and their nonpartisan application in the real world of US politics. | GerrymanderingGerrymandering is the intentional manipulation of electoral district boundaries to give one political party or group an unfair advantage over another. Instead of voters choosing their politicians, the practice allows politicians to effectively "pick their voters" by drawing lines that secure their continued power. |
Mathematician Answers Math Questions From Twitter
Can Math Stop Gerrymandering?
The MIT Blackjack Group
The team that proved that brains can, in fact, beat the house ~ Jon Hirschtick
The MIT Blackjack TeamThe MIT Blackjack Team was a group of students and ex-students from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, and other leading colleges who used card counting techniques and more sophisticated strategies to beat casinos at blackjack worldwide. Bill Kaplan had earned his BA at Harvard in 1977 and delayed his admission to Harvard Business School for a year, when he moved to Las Vegas and formed a blackjack team using his own research and statistical analysis of the game. He generated more than a 35-fold rate of return in less than nine months of play. | Card CountingCard counting is a strategy in blackjack used to determine whether the player or the dealer has an advantage on the next hand. Card counters try to overcome the casino house edge by keeping a running count of high and low valued cards dealt. Card counting is based on statistical evidence that high cards (aces, 10s, and 9s) benefit the player, while low cards, (2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, 6s, and 7s) benefit the dealer. |
The MIT Blackjack Team : Beating the Odds in Vegas
Paul DePodesta
The nice thing about baseball is that all of the possible outcomes are known - it's not quite as messy as the real world. That makes the game an excellent playground for probability. ~ Paul DePodesta
Paul DePodestaPaul DePodesta (born December 16, 1972) is an American sports executive who previously served as a front office assistant in MLB for the Oakland Athletics and other teams. He is also known for his appearance in the book and movie Moneyball about his early career as an assistant with the Athletics using math to choose players. In 1999, he joined the Oakland Athletics organization as the assistant general manager, serving as second-in-command to general manager Billy Beane. DePodesta was a key figure in Michael Lewis's book Moneyball. The book thrust the analytical principles of sabermetrics into the mainstream. | MoneyballIn 2003, author Michael Lewis was interested in how Oakland Athletics general manager (GM) Billy Beane tried to find quality players to improve the team while struggling with one of the smallest payrolls in Major League Baseball. He first wanted to write an article on the subject, but the idea eventually blossomed into a book named Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game. Lewis's interests included how Beane hired DePodesta as his assistant to incorporate sabermetrics, an approach that consists of more sophisticated analyses of baseball statistics, which is at least partially credited for their 2002 20-game winning streak which set an American League record. |
The Moneyball is BACK : Paul DePodesta Hired to Fix Baseball's Worst Team
Claude Elwood Shannon
I am very seldom interested in applications. I am more interested in the elegance of a problem. Is it a good problem, an interesting problem? ~ Claude Elwood Shannon
I have always pursued my interests without much regard for financial value or value to the world. ~ Claude Elwood Shannon
I have spent lots of time on totally useless problems. ~ Claude Elwood Shannon
Claude Elwood ShannonClaude Elwood Shannon (April 30, 1916 – February 24, 2001) was an American polymath who was a mathematician, electrical engineer, computer scientist, cryptographer, and inventor known as the "father of information theory", and the man who laid the foundations of the Information Age. | Shannon was the first to describe the use of Boolean algebra—essential to all digital electronic circuits—and helped found the field of artificial intelligence. |
Claude Shannon : Pioneer of Computing, Crytography, and AI
Julia Robinson
I like to think of mathematicians as forming a nation of our own without distinctions of geographical origin, race, creed, sex, age, or even time. ~ Julia Robinson
Julia Hall Bowman RobinsonJulia Hall Bowman Robinson (December 8, 1919 – July 30, 1985) was an American mathematician noted for her contributions to the fields of computability theory and computational complexity theory—most notably in decision problems. Her work on Hilbert's tenth problem (now known as Matiyasevich's theorem or the MRDP theorem) played a crucial role in its ultimate resolution. Robinson was a 1983 MacArthur Fellow. In 1975, she was the first female mathematician to be elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Robinson was chosen as the first female president of the American Mathematical Society. | The Julia Robinson Math Festival in Berkeley, CAThe Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival, sponsored by the American Institute of Mathematics from 2013 to the present and by the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute from 2007 to 2013, was named in her honor. |
Julia Robinson
The Woman who Rewrote the Rules of Mathematics
George Washington Carver
Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses. ~ George Washington Carver
It is simply service that measures success ~ George Washington Carver
Learn to do common things uncommonly well ~ George Washington Carver
George Washington CarverGeorge Washington Carver (c. 1864 January 5, 1943) was an American agricultural scientist and inventor who promoted alternative crops to cotton and methods to prevent soil depletion. He was one of the most prominent black scientists of the early 20th century. While a professor at Tuskegee Institute, Carver developed techniques to improve types of soils depleted by repeated plantings of cotton. He wanted poor farmers to grow other crops, such as peanuts and sweet potatoes, as a source of their own food and to improve their quality of life. | Apart from his work to improve the lives of farmers, Carver was also a leader in promoting environmentalism. He received numerous honors for his work, including the Spingarn Medal of the NAACP. In 1941, Time magazine dubbed Carver a "Black Leonardo da vinci". Business leaders came to seek his help, and he often responded with free advice. Three American presidents—Theodore Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge and Franklin D. Roosevelt—met with him, and the Crown Prince of Sweden studied with him for three weeks. |
Who was George Washington Carver?
List of Americans in Mathematics
This is a list of American mathematicians.
This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness.
Comments