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So then amateur mathematician is a bit misleading? It sounds like this guy is a marvelous person at whatever he does. How can he be an amateur ANYTHING but have
by jrq 8y ago
So then amateur mathematician is a bit misleading? It sounds like this guy is a marvelous person at whatever he does. How can he be an amateur ANYTHING but have a PhD?
- Eldandan 8y agoI think amateur in this case refers to non-professional / research mathematician with a PhD working at a University or a Research Institute. You still need to have some serious math chops to get this kind of result, it just isn't reflected in your official title or degree.
- userbinator 8y ago"Independent" might be a better adjective for someone like that.
- Jtsummers 8y agoIf you're not doing it for profit, you're an amateur. Independent would suggest he could still doing math professionally but on a contract or otherwise unaffiliated basis.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- pbhjpbhj 8y agoHmm, that is a definition of amateur; just as "professional" can mean you make a living from it. However amateur often means - in British English - simply "low skilled" as professional can mean "formally carried out with high competence".
- truculation 8y agoIIRC this guy or his associates dug up soil from a medieval burial site near Cambridge (England) to try and find a bacterial enzyme capable of breaking down 7-ketocholesterol (and hence potentially to cure artherosclerosis). Maybe not Indiana Jones but certainly ingenius and intrepid!
- spuz 8y agoAmateur comes from the Latin amar which means to love. An amateur is someone who does something for pleasure rather than money. Sometimes people use it to mean a novice or someone who is unskilled but in this case the original meaning applies.