p h o t o g r a p h y @ M S R I
By: Ed Alcock
Published in The Guardian, Life, 24 April 2003
The Mathematical Sciences Research Institute sits high on a hilltop overlooking
San Francisco Bay. It is part of the University of California at Berkeley, and
it serves as a retreat for world-class mathematicians. Here they are allowed to
devote themselves entirely to the discovery of new mathematics, without the
unwanted interference of a heavy teaching workload.
Before becoming a photographer, I studied for a doctorate in mathematics, so I
was intrigued to spend a month here as photojournalist in residence. For the
residents, having a photographer around meant a distraction from their work.
They were also baffled by what I could hope to achieve.
"How can you photograph mathematics? All we do is think," said one researcher.
This is almost true. Another problem is that when mathematicians think, they
don't like having a camera stuck in their face. This meant I had to become a
snoop: poking my way into offices, creeping around on the floors of lecture
theatres, eavesdropping on intense conversations - these became the only way to
produce a photo-documentary on mathematicians.
This institute reminds me of a monastery, full of maths monks who have
undertaken a vow of silence. Each of these devotees is enclosed in their
chamber, or in the library. The only sound resonating through the long corridors
is that of chalk tapping on blackboard and the occasional muttering of
mathematical oaths.
The only possible respite from this devotion would be the 3pm coffee break. But
no, this is merely an occasion for combining their mental powers in a free-form
brainstorming session on the communal blackboards. As the late Paul Erdos, a
celebrated Hungarian mathematician, once put it, mathematicians may be defined
as machines for converting coffee into theorems.
Life: Gallery: Beautiful minds caught on camera