4 ms·

OK. I've gotten to the Ofer Gabber part now. Ofer was in my dorm, and indeed had the room next to mine. That dorm held a pajama party at midnight. At the party,

OK. I've gotten to the Ofer Gabber part now. Ofer was in my dorm, and indeed had the room next to mine. That dorm held a pajama party at midnight. At the party, he tried to engage me in mathematical discussion. We had a bit of a math kid's row there. I started grad school at age 16. My roommate Ran Donagi started at 17. Ofer started at 16. I think they both were a lot more accomplished in math on arrival than I was, however, so that makes me the least precocious of the three of us. :) Perhaps not coincidentally, I'm the one who didn't remain in mathematics.

DmZB 12y ago
Please please please tell more Gabber and Donagi stories. (Every time I stumbled upon an "unproved theorem of Gabber" in a paper, I would take a screenshot and throw it into a folder.)
- CurtMonash 12y ago
  Apparently the Putnam exam was given unofficially to Israelis, and both Ran and Ofer finished top 10 -- in their mid-teens. By way of contrast, my best finish was a little worse than 100th, when I was 14. Ran was 3 years ahead of me, and pretty much the ideal roommate (my second semester; I invited him to swap rooms with a first semester roommate I didn't much get along with). No hassles about living conditions; some older-friend general advice; a lot of help studying for my qualifying exams. Ran had a sadness about him due to political controversy -- he had gotten a special postponement of army duty due to his precociousness, he didn't want to go back to fulfil his commitment, and orthodox Jewish department chair Shlomo Sternberg pretty much expelled him (albeit with a PhD) in retaliation. Of course, a much greater sadness later occurred in Ran's life, as his ex-wife killed their child in a murder-suicide. :( Ofer was a stereotypical geek; Ran was a more socially adept guy, with girlfriends and so on. Not coincidentally, he spoke the much better English of the two. If we had a hierarchy of who was quickest and smartest in the department, the top two were generally thought of as Ofer and Angelos Tsiromokos. In reality, Don Coppersmith was right up there as well. Angelos of course is the one who never got his PhD, instead going off to be a translator for the Common Market/EU. But then, he could beat me at Scrabble, despite English being his third language. (On the other hand, Daniel Pipes, who briefly lived in my dorm, didn't take kindly when a math guy -- me -- took him down at a word game. :) ) Ran told me of a multi-day conversation in which guys progressed through the natural numbers, coming up with an interesting mathematical question to which the number was the answer. I think they got stuck at 93 or so. When we were in the common room, it somehow came up in conversation that Jacobi was Jewish. I immediately said "Oh, THAT'S Jacobi's identity!" Angelos literally fell out of his chair laughing.
- thisjepisje 12y ago
  I'm not familiar with any of the people mentioned, but could you elaborate a bit on the unproved theorems? Were they generally supposed to be true?

DmZB 12y ago

Please please please tell more Gabber and Donagi stories. (Every time I stumbled upon an "unproved theorem of Gabber" in a paper, I would take a screenshot and throw it into a folder.)

CurtMonash 12y ago
Apparently the Putnam exam was given unofficially to Israelis, and both Ran and Ofer finished top 10 -- in their mid-teens. By way of contrast, my best finish was a little worse than 100th, when I was 14. Ran was 3 years ahead of me, and pretty much the ideal roommate (my second semester; I invited him to swap rooms with a first semester roommate I didn't much get along with). No hassles about living conditions; some older-friend general advice; a lot of help studying for my qualifying exams. Ran had a sadness about him due to political controversy -- he had gotten a special postponement of army duty due to his precociousness, he didn't want to go back to fulfil his commitment, and orthodox Jewish department chair Shlomo Sternberg pretty much expelled him (albeit with a PhD) in retaliation. Of course, a much greater sadness later occurred in Ran's life, as his ex-wife killed their child in a murder-suicide. :( Ofer was a stereotypical geek; Ran was a more socially adept guy, with girlfriends and so on. Not coincidentally, he spoke the much better English of the two. If we had a hierarchy of who was quickest and smartest in the department, the top two were generally thought of as Ofer and Angelos Tsiromokos. In reality, Don Coppersmith was right up there as well. Angelos of course is the one who never got his PhD, instead going off to be a translator for the Common Market/EU. But then, he could beat me at Scrabble, despite English being his third language. (On the other hand, Daniel Pipes, who briefly lived in my dorm, didn't take kindly when a math guy -- me -- took him down at a word game. :) ) Ran told me of a multi-day conversation in which guys progressed through the natural numbers, coming up with an interesting mathematical question to which the number was the answer. I think they got stuck at 93 or so. When we were in the common room, it somehow came up in conversation that Jacobi was Jewish. I immediately said "Oh, THAT'S Jacobi's identity!" Angelos literally fell out of his chair laughing.
thisjepisje 12y ago
I'm not familiar with any of the people mentioned, but could you elaborate a bit on the unproved theorems? Were they generally supposed to be true?