We are back with an episode on what makes mathematical problems interesting. In the studio with us, for this impossible topic, are Serte Donderwinkel and Steffen Müller: together we explore what we find interesting in mathematical problems, how beauty affects our taste, and how the way we present the problems influences the interest around them.

As usual, the episode touches upon a great variety of themes, don't miss it!

Episode links:

• Serte Donderwinkel's ⁠homepage⁠
• Steffen Müller's ⁠homepage⁠
• We met Anna in Season 1 Episode 8
• We met Jaap Top in ⁠Season 1 Episode 5⁠
• The Joy of Why - What makes for good mathematics?
• Freeman Dyson - Birds and Frogs

This was probably the episode with the largest amount of preliminary reading in the history of this podcast. The theme has been widely discussed and it is very interesting to see the various different points of views, with their differences and commonalities. We leave our reading list here for posterity:

• Terence Tao - What is good mathematics?
• John Baez - Why mathematics is boring
• Tim Gowers - The two cultures of mathematics
• Jeremy Avigad - Varieties of Mathematical Understanding
• Eugene Wigner - The unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics in the natural sciences, see also the corresponding Wikipedia page
• Gizem Karaali - Doing Math in Jest: Reflections on Useless Math, the Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics, and the Ethical Obligations of Mathematicians

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Produced by Marcello Seri and Anna de Bruijn

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Illustrations by Henrieke Krijgsheld

The podcast soundtrack is derived from the royalty free track Starving by OctoSound and used in agreement with pixabay license https://pixabay.com/music/funk-starving-170377

We are grateful to the Faculty of Science and Engineering of the University of Groningen for allowing us to use their equipment for this recording.

For the the last episode of this season, we are joined by Henk Broer and Harry Trentelman, two emeritus professors at our Institute.

They share their views on how the mathematical landscape has evolved over the past forty years, sharing with us their insights and their hopes for the future. During the episode we touch upon a great variety of themes, don't miss it!

Episode links:

• Henk Broer's homepage
• A link to the draft of our book on Oscillations
• Harry Trentelman's homepage

If you liked this episode, please spread the voice sharing it with your friends or on your social media.

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Produced by Marcello Seri and Marit van Straaten

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Illustrations by Henrieke Krijgsheld

The podcast soundtrack is derived from the royalty free track Starving by OctoSound and used in agreement with pixabay license https://pixabay.com/music/funk-starving-170377

We are grateful to the Faculty of Science and Engineering of the University of Groningen for allowing us to use their equipment for this recording.

For the ninth episode, we are joined by three Mathematics PhD students from our institute: Anne-Men Huijzer, Dijs de Neeling and Armin Pirastehzad.

They share their perspective as final year PhD students in Mathematics, answering some questions from our listeners and sharing their views on what is like to pursue a doctorate, including some obstacles they encountered and many useful tips for current and perspective students.

Episode links:

• Blog post on doing a PhD in STEM, with some useful links
• Steven Weinberg advice to students at the start of their scientific careers: four golden lessons
• For perspective PhD supervisors, there is a very nice free course on future learn on Successful PhD Supervision developed at our faculty and specifically targeting STEM subjects

If you liked this episode, please spread the voice sharing it with your friends or on your social media.

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Produced by Marcello Seri and Marit van Straaten

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Illustrations by Henrieke Krijgsheld

The podcast soundtrack is derived from the royalty free track Starving by OctoSound and used in agreement with pixabay license https://pixabay.com/music/funk-starving-170377

We are grateful to the Faculty of Science and Engineering of the University of Groningen for allowing us to use their equipment for this recording.

Welcome to the eight episode! This time we are joined by two Mathematics students, Naná Giadresco and Anna de Bruijn. They share their perspective as Mathematics students, as we discuss studying and teaching during the pandemic, expectations about studying Maths and who will be the co-host next year!

Episode links:

• The fruit puzzle of Naná’s thesis, and a paper discussing a more general version of the equation

If you liked this episode, please spread the voice sharing it with your friends or on your social media.

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Produced by Marcello Seri and Marit van Straaten

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Illustrations by Henrieke Krijgsheld

The podcast soundtrack is derived from the royalty free track Starving by OctoSound and used in agreement with pixabay license https://pixabay.com/music/funk-starving-170377

We are grateful to the Faculty of Science and Engineering of the University of Groningen for allowing us to use their equipment for this recording.

Welcome to the sixth episode of It's Not Just Numbers! For this episode we challenged a probabilist, Gilles Bonnet, and a statistician, Marco Grzegorczyk, to sit in the same room and explain us the commonalities and differences among their disciplines.

As usual we get to know our guests and then we head straight into the theme of the episode, exploring what probability and statistics are about and their complementary relationship, paving the road for some interesting future episodes.

Episode links:

• Gilles's website: https://www.math.rug.nl/gbonnet
• Marco's website: https://www.math.rug.nl/stat/People/Marco

If you liked this episode, please spread the voice sharing it with your friends or on your social media.

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Produced by Marcello Seri and Marit van Straaten

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Illustrations by Henrieke Krijgsheld

The podcast soundtrack is derived from the royalty free track Starving by OctoSound and used in agreement with pixabay license https://pixabay.com/music/funk-starving-170377

We are grateful to the Faculty of Science and Engineering of the University of Groningen for allowing us to use their equipment for this recording.

Welcome to the sixth episode of It's Not Just Numbers! Complementing last month’s episode, we are joined by Cristóbal Bertoglio and Juan Peypouquet to discuss the multifacet world of applied mathematics.

We discuss why communicating as a researcher is more important than most people realise, and the idea that people cannot switch between different fields within mathematics.

Episode links:

• Cristóbal's website: https://www.rug.nl/staff/c.a.bertoglio
• Juan's website: https://www.rug.nl/staff/j.g.peypouquet

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If you liked this episode, please spread the voice sharing it with your friends or on your social media.

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Produced by Marcello Seri and Marit van Straaten

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Illustrations by Henrieke Krijgsheld

The podcast soundtrack is derived from the royalty free track Starving by OctoSound and used in agreement with pixabay license https://pixabay.com/music/funk-starving-170377

We are grateful to the Faculty of Science and Engineering of the University of Groningen for allowing us to use their equipment for this recording.

Welcome to the fifth episode, where we focus on so-called 'pure' mathematics, together with our guests Oliver Lorscheid and Jaap Top.

We discuss the term 'pure' mathematics, the relation to applied mathematics, and a question mathematicians might come across often: why should we care about mathematics that is not immediately applicable?

Other topics of discussion are how our guests were drawn to mathematics, and how to change students' perspectives on mathematics in high school. Or is just focussing on students not enough?

Episode links:

• Jaap Top's website: ⁠https://www.rug.nl/staff/j.top
• ⁠Oliver Lorscheid's website: ⁠https://oliver.impa.br⁠
• Pythagoras, the mathematics magazine for high school students: ⁠https://www.pyth.eu⁠
• FMF Periodiek: https://perio.fmf.nl
• Chalkdust magazine: https://chalkdustmagazine.com

If you liked this episode, please spread the voice sharing it with your friends or on your social media.

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Produced by Marcello Seri and Marit van Straaten

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Illustrations by Henrieke Krijgsheld

The podcast soundtrack is derived from the royalty free track Starving by OctoSound and used in agreement with pixabay license https://pixabay.com/music/funk-starving-170377

We are grateful to the friends of FSE Radio for allowing us to use their equipment for this recording. Consider giving their podcast a go: https://open.spotify.com/show/1wi0YWwEQiZHyNDEYG2KHz

Welcome to our fourth episode, on public engagement with mathematics.

Sitting with us are Julian Koellermeier and Roland van der Veen, which will share what drove them to mathematics and their deep passion for engaging with adults and kids outside our university bubble.

We will discuss the importance of time and reflection, the role of grants in our research, the many advantages of learning how to communicate mathematics to broader audiences despite the lack of support of it.

Episode links:

• Julian Koellermeier's website: ⁠https://www.math.rug.nl/j.koellermeier
• Roland van der Veen's website: ⁠http://rolandvdv.nl
• Roland's book on the Riemann hypothesis:
  https://maa.org/press/maa-reviews/the-riemann-hypothesis
• Indra's pearls (Note by Roland: the amazing book I wrote by bachelor's thesis about): https://www.ams.org/notices/200301/rev-marden.pdf
• Roland's PhD defense dance demonstration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6zxKBUI3wY

If you liked this episode, please spread the voice sharing it with your friends or on your social media.

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Produced by Marcello Seri and Marit van Straaten

= = = { 0 } = = =

Illustrations by Henrieke Krijgsheld

The podcast soundtrack is derived from the royalty free track Starving by OctoSound and used in agreement with pixabay license https://pixabay.com/music/funk-starving-170377

We are grateful to the Faculty of Science and Engineering of the University of Groningen for allowing to use its podcast recording facilities for this episode