John Milnor - The Abel Prize interview 2011

02:33 Beginnings, Aptitude, "socially maladjusted" 03:40 Putnam, Math. as problem-solving 04:10 First paper (at 18 yo) 06:10 John Nash, Princeton 07:45 games: Kriegspiel, Go, Nash 09:25 game theory 10:35 knot theory, Papakyriakopoulos 15:45 manifolds 17:55 dim. 7 manifolds 20:35 collaboration with Serre, Thom 22:25 dim. 4 being very difficult 24:15 terminology, labelling 26:15 the Hauptvermutung 28:40 thinking geometrically, visualization 29:50 thinking algebraically, quadratic forms (Serre's exposition helped), K-theory 32:25 the Milnor conjecture (Voevodsky proved) 33:10 algebraic K-theory 35:10 groups of intermediate growth (Grigorchuk) 38:05 real and complex dynamics, Thurston 40:00 Kneading theory 43:20 computers in math.; experimental math. 47:40 writing textbooks, exposition 48:27 convince oneself of understanding by writing it down so one can understand it 48:50 mathematical writing, history of math. 50:15 impressionable mathematicians 51:20 aha moments 52:40 modern influences on math. 54:25 value of many working independently 55:40 the value of mathematics 56:25 other interests Interview in written. Notices of the American Mathematical Society: https://www.ams.org/notices/201203/rtx120300400p.pdf The Abel interview 2011: John Milnor Interviewers: Mathematicians Martin Raussen og Christian Skau Produced by UniMedia