“The Pursuit of Beauty” is a New Yorker (Feb 2) article about one of the world’s leading mathematicians, who obtained his first standard academic job, at University of New Hampshire, at age 59. What kind of job did he have for many of the years since he received his PhD?
A member of the group, a chemist in a lab, opened a Subway franchise as a means of raising money. “Since Tom was a genius at numbers,” another member of the group told me, “he was invited to help him.” Zhang kept the books. “Sometimes, if it was busy at the store, I helped with the cash register,” Zhang told me recently. “Even I knew how to make the sandwiches, but I didn’t do it so much.” When Zhang wasn’t working, he would go to the library at the University of Kentucky and read journals in algebraic geometry and number theory. “For years, I didn’t really keep up my dream in mathematics,” he said.
All that he needed to do to get a “real job”was solve a problem that had stymied mathematicians since the 19th Century….
Related: “Women in Science” (STEM careers versus the alternatives)
The system stinks but Zhang was partly responsible for his own fate:
From his Phd advisor:
So after Yitang graduated, I told him the normal way of seeking
jobs. When I looked into his eyes, I found a disturbing soul, a burning
bush, an explorer who wanted to reach the north pole, a mountaineer who
determined to scale Mt. Everest, and a traveler who would brave thunders
and lightnings to reach his destination. Yitang never came back to me
requesting recommendation letters. Apparently, he did not seek a job. Even
to the date Yitang announced his monumental result I did not know what
was the best for him. Though I was sure of one thing, − he could not survive
the life of “tenure-track,” “tenure,” and “promotions”. It was not his type.
I regarded him as a free spirit, and I should let him fly. Yitang flew away
after he told me that he was going to Rutgers University to talk to Prof.
Iwaniec. I bade him good luck. That was almost 22 years ago.
http://www.math.purdue.edu/~ttm/ZhangYt.pdf
Ironically, Zhang’s breakthru paper relied on Iwaniec’s work – he should have been working alongside Iwaniec this whole time. But Zhang is not the type of guy who collaborates with others and accepts 3rd position on some minor paper. This way he didn’t have to share credit with anyone.