Andrew Wiles
Andrew Wiles
Sir Andrew John Wiles KBE FRSis a British mathematician and a Royal Society Research Professor at the University of Oxford, specialising in number theory. He is most notable for proving Fermat's Last Theorem, for which he received the 2016 Abel Prize. Wiles has received numerous other honours...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionMathematician
Date of Birth11 April 1953
science oil forever
Mathematics... is a bit like discovering oil. ... But mathematics has one great advantage over oil, in that no one has yet ... found a way that you can keep using the same oil forever.
college umpires people
Then when I reached college I realized that many people had thought about the problem during the 18th and 19th centuries and so I studied those methods.
beautiful simple years
Some mathematics problems look simple, and you try them for a year or so, and then you try them for a hundred years, and it turns out that they're extremely hard to solve. There's no reason why these problems shouldn't be easy, and yet they turn out to be extremely intricate. [Fermat's] Last Theorem is the most beautiful example of this.
love childhood england
I grew up in Cambridge in England, and my love of mathematics dates from those early childhood days.
problem hypothesis mathematician
The greatest problem for mathematicians now is probably the Riemann Hypothesis.
trying ifs seems
However impenetrable it seems, if you don't try it, then you can never do it.
use computer mathematical
I never use a computer.
mean privilege adults
I know it's a rare privilege, but if one can really tackle something in adult life that means that much to you, then it's more rewarding than anything I can imagine.
dark light six-months
Perhaps I could best describe my experience of doing mathematics in terms of entering a dark mansion. You go into the first room and it's dark, completely dark. You stumble around, bumping into the furniture. Gradually, you learn where each piece of furniture is. And finally, after six months or so, you find the light switch and turn it on. Suddenly, it's all illuminated and you can see exactly where you were. Then you enter the next dark room...
proof said
Fermat said he had a proof.
definitions problem mathematics
The definition of a good mathematical problem is the mathematics it generates rather than the problem itself.
four want infinity
Mathematicians aren't satisfied because they know there are no solutions up to four million or four billion, they really want to know that there are no solutions up to infinity.
challenges trying problem
Pure mathematicians just love to try unsolved problems - they love a challenge.
dream childhood able
I had this rare privilege of being able to pursue in my adult life, what had been my childhood dream.