The 92-Year-Old Mathematician and the Teenage Apprentice

Sunday, September 06, 2026

Joan Birman thought her major discoveries were behind her. Then came an email from a young neighbor -- a girl who knew little but wanted to learn.

Posted by retort at 03:45 PM | 4 COMMENTS | permalink | Comment on This Entry |

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I just read this article and while it was interesting, I didn't understand all that much as the math was over my head (my degree was in Mechanical Engineering). However, I have a granddaughter who's graduating from my alma mater this coming May, majoring in Chemistry and minoring in Math and Physics. Here current GPA is 3.95 and she's applying for graduate school at Johns Hopkins and ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology). I'll see if she's ever heard of this sort of math before.

OCU

#1 | Posted by OCUser at 2026-09-07 05:53 PM | Reply

my son just graduated Northwestern with a 3.98 in math and a 3.98 in another major... should introduce them OCU. I'd like to see the IQ of their kids.

#2 | Posted by kwrx25 at 2026-09-08 03:20 PM | Reply

"my son just graduated Northwestern with a 3.98 in math and a 3.98 in another major... "

Congratulations! Great individual achievement, but that also reflects excellent parenting.

Same for OCU. Congratulations!

And iirc, Eberly also has a standout student. Way to go!

#3 | Posted by Danforth at 2026-09-08 03:27 PM | Reply

Thanks Danforth!

And OCU to your point, I took more than a fair bit of math for my Meteorology degree and pretty early on in my son's classes he was discussing math concepts he was covering that I were well beyond anything I had ever seen.

#4 | Posted by kwrx25 at 2026-09-08 03:51 PM | Reply