Louis Nirenberg - The Abel Prize interview 2015

0:00 Congratulations
0:12 Partial Differential Equations and application to geometry and physics
6:15 The beginnings of his mathematical life
9:19 Courant Institute, Kurt Friedrichs and the CUNY
16:10 Partial Differential Equations and Inequalities
20:03 the notion of pseudo-differential operators
23:38 Problems, Collaboration and “Sitzfleisch”
27:55 Communicating Mathematics
31:12 The international mathematical community: Traveling to the Soviet Union and China
36:36 Passions outside mathematics: movies and music
Interview in written. Notices of the American Mathematical Society:
www.ams.org/notices/200204/fe...
Interviewed by mathematicians Martin Raussen og Christian Skau.
Produced by UniMedia

[@BlueSoulTiger]

00:00 Introduction 00:51 the Weyl problem 02:07 PDEs, ODEs 05:03 work with Caffarelli and Kohn on the Navier-Stokes equations 06:15 how did your mathematical life started (now no longer fascinated by puzzles) 07:04 went to a very good high school (Baron Byng) 07:35 talent for mathematics? 08:08 graduated from McGill (Math. and Physics) 09:20 at the Courant Institute 10:30 more on Richard Courant and his Institute 11:45 Courant retained the "good people", not forced to move on 12:15 the Courant family, 12:55 Kurt Friedrichs as mentor, "sensei" 13:42 no distinction between pure and applied math. at the Institute 14:10 Courant asked what does a Math. Dept need 14:25 why so many Abel Prize winners from the Courant? 15:25 important colleagues: Fritz John, Hans Lewy 16:10 co-authors 16:38 Fritz John, BMO theory 17:42 I love inequalities; importance of inequalities in PDEs 18:56 two papers with Agmon, Douglis extending Schauder's work 20:07 Kohn, pseudo-differential operators from properties of commutators 22:00 Newlander and problem in complex analysis 23:45 90% papers are co-authored: why work with others? 24:24 start with a goal; when I come to a fork in the road, I take it 24:55 problem-solvers vs theory-builders 25:16 interesting problems; what attracted to; how do you find a good research problem? e.g. a proof you don't like 26:20 how results achieved? most of the time you're stuck; perseverance necessary 27:15 absorption in a problem 27:55: 45 PhD students, problems for, working with 29:02 love for math.? what is appealing? fun, exciting, even though stuck 90%+ of the time 30:05 need to be stubborn, to persevere 30:18 communicating to the "general public" 30:40 Love and Math by Frenkel 31:10 in the Soviet Union, joint 1963 meeting on PDEs, a wonderful meeting 32:16 no collaborations with Russians though 32:26 China, Chinese mathematicians incl. Chern (1975) 34:09 first recipient of the Chern Medal (2010) 34:20 Arnol'd, Crafoord Prize 35:40 results already proved in Russia? 36:42 interests outside of math. 37:39 music interests incl. jazz, Argentine tangos

[@andreaskleinert7756]

Absolutely magnificent! Such an honour is could hear, learn and meet a little bit more about this amazing scientist!!

[@billmichae]

This prof is ultra smart, creative and lucid! He definitely deserved Abel Prize, and even more!

[@siddhantritwick287]

What a guy . Respect .

[@peterhall6656]

He reminds me so much of the late great Eli Stein. Both wonderful guys.

[@rustyshimstock8653]

To say that Prof. Niremerg had an amazing memory for names would be to remark on a trivial capability next to his completely unfathomable capability for complex abstraction. But there it is. It sounds as if the world he created for himself was one oyster after another.

[@yuwenli8789]

Fantastic analyst!

[@chunhengko5857]

Great mathematician!!

[@MrLikon7]

rest in peace

[@jeandetti6250]

20:30

[@Lewesis]

Would have been nice, if they have also asked him, which movies he likes so much

[@kenichimori8533]

David.P