Ed Alcock: Journalist in Residence, Spring 2003

Ed Alcock: Journalist in Residence, Spring 2003

Ed Alcock is an award-winning editorial photographer based in Paris, France. His work is regularly published in The New York Times, The Guardian, The Observer, The Independent, The Telegraph and Liberation.

He completed a Ph.D. in mathematics in 1999 at Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London. The main result of his thesis is published in the "Journal of Algebra". Examples of his work can be seen on his web site. 

Links to Ed Alcock's Work

"The pictures linked below, and which were published in The New York Times and The Guardian (London), were produced in 2003 during a month spent at MSRI, as part of their journalist-in-residence (JIR) program. As a former mathematician, with a Ph.D. in algebra, it was a challenging experience to return to the world of mathematical research with the aim of communicating to an audience oblivious to the beauty of group theory or the intricacies of a spectral sequence just what mathematicians do with their days. A mathematician, as number theorist Paul Erdős once said, is a machine for converting coffee into theorems. This photo-essay offers a rare glimpse into the truth factory.