Andrey Okounkov: 'Happiness Is not about Proving Something to Other People'
In the whole history of mathematics just 8 winners of the highest award - the Field Prize - have come from Russia. One of them is Andrey Okounkov, Academic Supervisor at the International Laboratory of Representation Theory and Mathematical Physics HSE. On Hamburg Reckoning, a weekly programme which broadcasts interviews with major academics on current Russian issues on the OTR TV channel, he talked about his journey from economics to mathematics, about the Faculty of Mathematics at HSE and what makes mathematicians happy.
How it all started...
— Andrey, not so long ago Alexander Kuleshov, Director of the Institute for Information Transmission Problems was sitting where you are now in this studio and he told us that he had been a remarkably gifted child prodigy but it didn’t help him when he went to university to study mechanics and mathematics. Tell us what kind of child you were. Were you a classic brainbox?
— I don’t think so. I was just an ordinary kid. I think the thing I liked most at school was going to play basketball in the sports hall after lessons. We used to go to the shooting range, to the literature class and our teacher used to tell us stories.
— While you were growing up, were you successful at school, a diligent pupil? Were there signs that your name would enter the annals of world mathematics?
— I really can’t say. I took part in lots of different competitions. I won the Moscow city olympiad for German three times. I even entered the olympiad for music once although I don’t have any musical gifts at all, but my teacher sent me. I think there was a big mistake. I had to write an essay on the subject of ‘music in Lenin’s life’. I got some very fancy certificate for that.
I was never entered for any mathematics olympiads - so no clues there. I went to district competitions for nearly every subject but I didn’t go to a single city one.
— What made you start a degree in Economics?
— I went to a specialist economics and maths school in the last years of high school, which still exists and flourishes under the auspices of the Economics Faculty at Moscow State University (MGU). A lot of famous people have been through that school. The Rector of HSE, Yaroslav Kuzminov was headmaster there for example. It was an amazing place. That’s where I met my wife, Inna, and my closest friends.
— You have had an unusual life as a mathematician in that respect. People usually leave mathematics to go into other areas. To come into mathematics from economics is very rare. What happened that made you study economics and then become a mathematician?
— At the economics faculty I studied economic cybernetics. It was a group with a strong mathematical bent. There were some quite famous mathematicians in the department - Valery F. Pakhomov, Kochergin, Kostrikin - they were powerful mathematical minds. Mechanics and mathematics was kind of the next step. But I don’t think it was so out of the blue: I had some idea of what studying mechanics and mathematics was like while I was studying economics.
— So at what point did you realise that you are a mathematician?
— I liked economics a lot, I am interested in things about human society but it seemed to me that I was better at maths, that I think more clearly about mathematics.
— What was the moment when you made that step?
— It was when I came back after the army. It was easy to do then because there were special conditions at MGU for people who had done military service. We were given very big grants. I remember that my grant with all the extras was 125 roubles a month. Crazy money. For example, I could buy a massive bouquet of flowers for Inna without making a hole in my wallet.
Not long ago Alexander Kuleshov talked to you about mathematicians being regarded as highly eligible bachelors. I felt I was entirely eligible in those days.
About the Mathematics Faculty and the Laboratory at HSE
— Are you able to recreate that fruitful atmosphere of your student days where you work now with your own students?
— It’s much more complicated. Imagine, I spend most of my time in New York and am in Moscow for just a few months each year. If you take the number of financial workers, artists and politicians, its probably similar to Moscow. But the number of mathematicians is incomparable. The Math Faculty at HSE attracts some remarkable talent, a huge number of students and young people. Columbia doesn’t attract so many. By American standards our graduate courses are doing alright, but nothing like the same scale, the muster of people is so much less. So even in such a good university where I work, by Russian standards I would think that, in some respects,I was in the provinces.
— You have a new laboratory opening at HSE.
— Yes, it has already opened and been working for a year.
— Why did you do that?
— The HSE Math Faculty is very similar, in some senses, at one with the environment of the old independent universities which continue to this day but have now been reincarnated as the Math Faculty. It’s a culture, a huge number of ideas and people who are very dear to me. I thought it would be a great idea, influenced as I was by a trip to the annual summer school at Yaroslavl which runs a lab, directed by Fedor Bogomolov. I was absolutely stunned by the number of young people there.
— That’s Fedor Bogomolov, Professor at the Courant Institute in New York who has a laboratory here?
— Yes, we run two labs in parallel. It’s one thing when you give a talk at a seminar where there are 20-30 people and another when you see a huge auditorium packed mainly with a vast number of young people. Their interest in the kind of mathematics I tried to present to them absolutely amazed me and continues to amaze me. Students at the HSE Math Faculty are absolutely extraordinary young guys and girls. There are too many for me to count them all but in all the age groups there are remarkable people. The main aim of all this is to keep it going. I would say at this stage, to grow back to the level of the Moscow math environment there used to be.
On Youth and Age for Mathematicians
— There is a view that the best thing that can happen to a young mathematician is when he comes up with a proof that is deemed to be worth a Fields Medal. But what’s the best thing for an old mathematician?
— Initially, I disagree with that statement. I think that happiness is not about proving something to other people to show off how good you are at math. People are just like that. It really helps to have someone to acknowledge our successes and cheer us on. The main joy of mathematics is when you realise something really deep, when it makes you catch your breath. In those rare moments when I strike upon something like that, I always rush to tell my friends about it and it helps me a lot if they say, yes, that’s really amazing.
— How do you envisage your old age?
— I guess that will be when it becomes hard for me to work on cutting edge science. Maybe I’ll spend more time popularising it instead. Maybe I’ll write some books to explain things that I think are important but so far have only been written about in inaccessible language.
Full video is available here (in Russian).
Source: Public Television of Russia
See also:
HSE University Wins Two Medals at the International Mathematics Competition for University Students
Two students, one graduate and one undergraduate, from the HSE Faculty of Computer Science (FCS) programme in ‘Applied Mathematics and Information Science’ won prestigious awards at the International Mathematics Competition for University Students (IMC). Graduate Maksim Kazadaev and first-year student Daria Linichenko both represented HSE University at the IMC, winning gold and silver medals respectively.
Prepare for the INTO HSE Olympiad with HSE Students
Winners of the INTO HSE International Maths Olympiad receive scholarships and admission offers to 37 different programmes at HSE University. Angelina Yudina, a master's student and invited instructor of maths at the Faculty of Economic Sciences, offers a video lesson where she analyses the demo version of the maths problems from the Olympiad.
Immortal Cells and Mathematics Reveal Mechanism behind Coronavirus Infection
A mathematical model has helped describe the course of infection caused by two variants of coronavirus: Omicron and Delta, and explain the differences between them. It appears that the cell entry rate is lower for Omicron, allowing infected cells ample time to alert neighbouring cells of the threat and trigger the activation of their innate immune response. In the future, the developed model could be employed to investigate any other variant of COVID-19, potentially leading to effective strategies for combating new hazardous strains, such as Pirola and JN.1. The findings from the study conducted with the participation of HSE researchers have been published in PeerJ.
Mathematicians Reveal the Mechanism behind Neuron Synchronisation: Hyperchaos
Scientists of the International Laboratory of Dynamic Systems and Applications at HSE Campus in Nizhny Novgorod have described a rare case of synchronisation in a system of chemically coupled neuron models. The study findings enable a mathematical description of atypical brain functioning modes, including those associated with neurodegenerative diseases. The study has been published in Regular and Chaotic Dynamics.
‘The Joy of Science Lies in the Euphoria of Learning’
For Elena Nozdrinova, mathematics is her life's work and a realm where she discovers universal order and harmony. In her interview with the HSE Young Scientists project, she speaks about dynamical systems, the Nizhny Novgorod scientific school, and favourite pastimes that help her grow.
HSE Scientists Unveil New Findings Regarding Stability of Communication Systems
Researchers from the International Laboratory of Dynamical Systems and Applications at the HSE Campus in Nizhny Novgorod have discovered that the use of systems with hyperbolic solenoid attractors and repellers can lead to issues in the transmission of communication signals. The findings of this study have been published in Results in Mathematics. The research was financed by a substantial grant from the Russian Government as part of the 'Science and Universities' National Project and a further grant from the Russian Science Foundation.
Monsters of the Deep: HSE Scientists Have Compiled a Catalogue of Rogue Waves
Rogue waves, or killer waves, are abnormally high and deadly waves that can emerge unpredictably in open seas and along shorelines. They pose an imminent deadly threat to everyone from colossal liners and pleasure yachts to seafarers and vacationers. Scientists from the HSE campus in Nizhny Novgorod Efim Pelinovsky and Ekaterina Didenkulova have assembled a catalogue of such phenomena that occurred in the World Ocean from 2011 to 2018, identifying the areas where they are frequently documented and inflict the most substantial damage.
Students of Engineering and Mathematics School Present First Project Results
Students of the Engineering and Mathematics School (EMS) launched by HSE University and VK in October 2022 held a Demo Day to showcase the first results of their product- and research-based IT projects. Work on the projects has been conducted under the supervision of experts from the university and mentors from VK.
‘I Prefer Work to Most Types of Pastime’
Ivan Arzhantsev has headed up the Faculty of Computer Science since it was established in 2014. He has never been a specialist in Computer Science – all his life he’s been engaged in mathematics. On his 50th birthday, he shared with HSE Life how this has helped him to lead the best HSE faculty.
HSE University Students Win Prizes at the International Mathematics Competition for University Students
The 29th International Mathematics Competition for University Students (IMC 2022) took place in early August in a mixed format in Blagoevgrad (Bulgaria) and online. Eight students of the HSE Faculty of Computer Science and the HSE Faculty of Mathematics won prizes at the competition.