Math Moment: Karen Uhlenbeck
“It started with reading everything” and led to creating new math
Dr. Karen Keskulla Uhlenbeck
Dr. Karen Uhlenbeck is one of the most influential mathematicians of our time and a founder of modern geometric analysis. In 2019, she became the first woman to win the Abel Prize, often considered the Nobel Prize of mathematics.
Here are two quotes from her life that offer us a mathy perspective into childhood learning and creative discovery:
Karen as a child
“As a child I read a lot, and I read everything. I’d go to the library and then stay up all night reading. I used to read under the desk in school […] I read all of the books on science in the library and was frustrated when there was nothing left to read.”
From Journeys of Women in Science and Engineering, Temple University Press (1999)1
Why I love this:
This captures something we deeply believe in as a family: exposing kids to everything. Even if they love math, they might love something else more, and that’s great! Feeding their brains with a buffet of ideas builds both curiosity and flexibility.
Karen’s “aha” moment as a college student
“In this class I had an ‘aha’ moment when I realized I could do what was in the books. I didn’t have to learn it, so to speak—I could create it myself.”
From a 2018 interview in Celebratio Mathematica2
Why I love this:
It’s a helpful reminder for us (and our kids): Math isn’t some sacred text handed down to us by a “Math God”; instead, Math is a human invention. Someone, somewhere, thought through a problem and made it up. That realization, “I can create math too,” can unlock incredible confidence.
That’s all for today :) For more Kids Who Love Math treats, check out our archives.
Stay Mathy!
All the best,
Sebastian Gutierrez
https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Journeys_of_Women_in_Science_and_Enginee.html?id=Xm6xGwAACAAJ
https://celebratio.org/Uhlenbeck_K/article/634/