Math in the News
Mathematicians Win National Medal of Science
Solomon Wolf Golomb of the University of Southern California and Barry Mazur of Harvard University were among the 12 researchers awarded the National Medal of Science by President Obama on February 1. In its 50th year, the award is the highest honor bestowed upon scientists by the U.S. government.
Golomb is the inventor of polyominoes (which inspired Tetris), but he received the National Medal of Science "for pioneering work in shift register sequences that changed the course of communications from analog to digital and for numerous innovations in reliable and secure space, radar, cellular, wireless and spread-spectrum communications."
Mazur was honored "for original and landmark contributions to differential topology, number theory and arithmetic algebraic geometry, where, among other applications, his work was foundational to Wiles' proof of Fermat's Last Theorem and for his dedication to communicating subtle mathematical ideas to the broader public."
Read the press release.