Math Professor’s Work Adds Up to an International Award
Published: May 25, 2006
He likes to keep it casual in his classroom. Or, at least, that was the case the day we came to visit.
I can’t say that’s a formula for his success, but the t-shirt wearing teacher at Boise State University seems to be a success.
“I am doing what I am doing what I like to do because I had some good teachers along the way,” Justin Moore says.
“And so, I feel this is kind of a debt that I have to re-pay. I go back and try to get other people excited about doing this stuff.”
But, Justin Moore’s accomplishments have added up to so much more.
“What’s the buzz word by the way,” Justin asks his students.
He’s become the buzz in the math world. And I do mean world.
“And then, there’s one that came from England,” Justin says as he shows us one of his several e-mails. Another came from Paris. He’s received messages from across the globe congratulating him on his big win.
“I was so excited.”
Justin earned the top prize in a recent international competition in Austria.
Not too shabby for a professor from little old BSU.
“I think it was definitely an upset, I mean from that point of view,” says Justin.
“For a long time, I thought of math as just some kind of a hobby. I didn’t realize that you could make a reasonable living out of just doing math.”
“Actually, the irony in all of this is that my dad did not do so well in math.”
Justin beat out dozens of other math experts — many with more high-tech approaches to the contest.
“A lot of very fancy talks. Some of the guys from the computer sciences had these elaborate, computerized talks. Mine was very primitive. It was about four transparencies… that I just spoke over… It worked, yeah.”
And it’s no laughing matter, especially considering he took home a prize of close to 25-thousand dollars.
“Finishing first by itself means in some sense more than the amount of money.”
Justin says his winning proposal was based on his own research from the past two years. The contest in Vienna was centered around the 100th anniversary of the birth of Austria’s king of mathematics, Kurt Godel. And all entries had to based around Godel’s work.
“To a certain extent, this is a consequence of some results I proved recently,” Justin says.
“In hindsight, winning the award had to do with this work. It got into some, sort of the top journals in mathematics.”
And, it comes during a time when schools in the U.S. are being scrutinized for students lagging behind the rest of the world in math and science.
Justin hopes his work can inspire others to find math a more friendly environment.
“I think everyone to a certain extent likes to see more people doing what they’re doing. If they really like their job, or whatever, then they really want to share it with people. And so, I’d like to see more people get involved for that reason.”
If you enjoyed this good news Subscribe to Good News Blog
Share this
To share this simply copy and paste one of the below URL's: