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You're like a mathematical rock star almost.
http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2006/s1751382.htm
Maths needs marketing, says Fields Medallist
PM - Thursday, 28 September , 2006 18:42:51
Reporter: Sabra Lane
MARK COLVIN: Professor Terry Tao would have to be a strong contender for
the title of cleverest living Australian.
Last month he was awarded the mathematical equivalent of a Nobel Prize,
the prestigious Fields Medal.
Now Professor Tao is back in Australia and he says that what maths needs
is marketing.
Professor Tao was a star speaker at the Australian Maths Society's 50th
anniversary conference in Sydney.
Sabra Lane reports.
SABRA LANE: Terry Tao was a boy genius. He had two university degrees by
his late teens and was a professor of mathematics by the time he was
24-years-old.
Last month in Madrid the 31-year-old was awarded the Fields Medal,
propelling him into the mathematical equivalent of the Rock 'n' Roll
Hall of Fame.
This week he spoke to 200 maths teachers and undergraduate students at
the Australian Mathematical Society conference about the "cosmic
distance ladder". That's how astronomers have used basic high school
algebra to calculate distance between the stars.
Getting an interview with the Professor wasn't easy, this reporter had
to queue with some rather eager fans.
(to Terry Tao) It was interesting that a number of people pulled you up
on the way out to get your autograph?
TERRY TAO: Yeah that was a new experience that first started in Madrid.
I remember I had to get from like one place in the conference building
to another, and it took me 45 minutes to get there because there were
people to talk to and shake hands and sign autographs and so forth.
Yeah, so having that attention is certainly very unusual.
SABRA LANE: You're like a mathematical rock star almost.
TERRY TAO: That's what Gus said. I don't feel, I hope not, I don't know.
Well, I mean I would like things to quiet down and to get back to doing
work at some point.
SABRA LANE: While Professor Tao won't talk specifically about the
decline of maths in Australia, he says it's need of a marketing overhaul.
He believes the secret in attracting students to the much-maligned
subject is in demystifying it.
TERRY TAO: It's not magic. Using mathematics, for instance, you can see
where all of science comes from, a lot of technology. And it's really
empowering. You realise that the world is this incomprehensible scary
place, it's actually just built out of very simple, logical ideas. And
so that's one thing a mathematical education can really give you.
SABRA LANE: The Professor says unfortunately you can't do much about how
maths is taught in school. He believes just like good music, maths takes
years of practice before you can create and work on a masterpiece.
TERRY TAO: One of the problems is that mathematics, in order to get to
the good stuff you have to start with a lot of drills, a lot of menial work.
It's like if you want to be a good pianist, you have to do a lot of
scales and a lot of practice, and a lot of that is kind of boring, it's
work. But you need to do that before you can really be very expressive
and really play beautiful music. You have to go through that phase of
practice and drill.
And unfortunately the high school and primary school math education
system… well there's a lot of that.
SABRA LANE: The Professor likes to point out while some people may
believe a pursuit of maths is for nerds, he says it's created its fair
share of millionaires, even billionaires.
TERRY TAO: In the States there are a lots of mathematicians… people have
used mathematics to make a lot of money and that's what gives you a lot
of respect in America. Like the founders of Google were PhDs in
mathematics, and they designed a mathematic algorithm to search to… to
rank pages and to search algorithms, and their billionaires. So that
goes a long way in America. People don't laugh at you so much when they
see you make a billion dollars.
SABRA LANE: The Los Angeles-based professor says he's been offered jobs
back in Australia since winning his prestigious award, but he can't take
them, as his wife is American, and his family ties are now in California.
For now, he says he's keen to get back to work and doesn't really know
what he'll be doing five years from now.
TERRY TAO: It's a very unpredictable thing. What I'm doing… my research
I do now, five years ago I wouldn't have had a clue that this is what
I'd be doing. You solve a problem and it leads naturally to two new
problems that you didn't know before, and you follow your research
organically and then all the other stuff, the recognition stuff happens
by itself, you just put your head down and you solve your problems.
MARK COLVIN: Fields Medallist Professor Terry Tao ending that report by
Sabra Lane.
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