The Mathematics Genealogy Project

December 21, 2004 9:30 AM

The Mathematics Genealogy Project. A service of the Department of Mathematics at North Dakota State University, the project intends to "compile information about ALL the mathematicians of the world. [...] It is our goal to list all individuals who have received a doctorate in mathematics." Seven generations from one of my recent professors back to Gauss, six back to Felix Klein (of Erlangen Program and bottle fame), eight back to Jacobi, and nine back to Poisson and Fourier, then Lagrange, then Euler, then the Bernoulli brothers, then Leibniz, and then it blew up at infinity.
posted by gramschmidt (5 comments total)

I'm in it, and I've sent them info about my advisor, but it's never shown up. I go back through Whitehead, Steenrod, and Lefschetz.
posted by Wolfdog at 10:07 AM on December 21, 2004

Here's [pdf] an out-of-date version of mine (I never got around to updating it after they finally figured out who Hausen's advisor was). Highlights: E.T. Bell (the greatest mathematical expositor of them all, mostly because he wasn't averse to making things up); Frank Cole (has a prize named after him); Felix Klein; Dirichlet; Lagrange; Gauss; Pfaff.

Here's a question that's bothered me for years: If other students of my advisor are my (mathematical) siblings, how am I related to his wife's students?

Quasi-related link dump: The latest issue of the Notices of the AMS has a great article [pdf] about the patterns of research in mathematics, including lots of data about the collaboration graph (think Erdos numbers). If you're at a subscribing institution, you can use MathSciNet's new Collaboration Distance Calculator to figure out your Erdos number, or your me number, or even your Chalabi number (self-link).
posted by gleuschk at 11:14 AM on December 21, 2004

and then it blew up at infinity.

I've always been looking for ways to work this phrase into everyday conversations.
posted by DaShiv at 11:59 AM on December 21, 2004

Check out the entries for the Unabomber and the deposed head of the Iraqi National Congress.
posted by jonp72 at 9:36 PM on December 21, 2004

Oops, I mean Unabomber.
posted by jonp72 at 9:37 PM on December 21, 2004