Talk:List of mathematicians

Who is Joel David Bondurant? I have never heard of him (which doesn't mean much), and I can't find anything on the web.

Since I have had no reply, and can find no references on the web, I have deleted Joel David Bondurant. I think to be on this list Mathematicians should have some theorem, proof or claim to fame. Just as I would not add my mother-in-law to a list of artists, though she does a fair watercolour, it is not just enough to do maths. Of course, if someone knows that he has some claim to fame in the mathematics world then add him again, perhaps with a page to describe his work. -- Chris Q 07:48 Nov 5, 2002 (UTC)

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Why is Christopher Wren on this list? He is a famous architect, but -- as far as I know -- not a mathematician. Also, his page does not mention the word "math" at all. Aleph4 20:12, 5 Nov 2003 (UTC)

See http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/history/Mathematicians/Wren.html. Nevertheless, I am tempted to remove him from the list of mathematicians. Dominus 20:25, 5 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Wren is usually mentioned in a History of Math text. gbeehler 5:18, 6 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Isn't it a bad general idea to make listing here a 'recognition' matter?

Charles Matthews 09:30, 6 Nov 2003 (UTC)

No. Who cares about people who haven't contributed anything demonstrably significant to Mathematics? There are plenty of people who have. MrJones 11:48, 6 Nov 2003 (UTC)

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What is the rule for country attribution? I changed the country for Janos and Farkas Bolyai - two Hungarian mathematicians, whose city of birth now lies in Romania - to Hungary. I think this priciple is better, as all the ancient Greek/Persian/Arab mathematicians are also listed by historic countries.

I don't think we have established rules. -- Walt Pohl 21:00, 14 Mar 2004 (UTC)

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I'm not sure why Asger Aaboe is on this list, but since he was there, I filled in his full name. -- Dominus 14:27, 22 Mar 2004 (UTC)

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I added A. K. Dewdney and touched up his article a bit also. But 1) I'm unable to find more bio on him (such as birthdate), & 2) I'm mildly surprised that the famous Mathematical Recreations column in Scientific American (which was Dewdney's for a while) has no entry yet. -- Ds13 06:29, 2004 Apr 15 (UTC)

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Would it be interesting to have a separate list of people who received academic training in mathematics but became famous for something other than math or science (might help dispell stereotypes about mathematicians) ? The list would include Tom Lehrer, Ahmed Chalabi, J. P. Morgan, the Unabomber, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Harry Blackmun, David Dinkins, Bram Stoker, Art Garfunkel, Robert Heinlein, and Larry Ellison. Maybe Christopher Wren and Lewis Carroll. Loren Rosen 06:54, 25 May 2004 (UTC)

Aleksandrov

The article was subject to an editthat (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=List_of_mathematicians&diff=5034442&oldid=4996357) is described in the history (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=List_of_mathematicians&action=history) by

12:05, 2004 Aug 4 BACbKA (another Alexandrov (A.D.) added, life ranges added for both)

That edit added the following Wiki-markup, including a complete entry:

*Aleksandr Danilovich Aleksandrov (Russia, 1912 - 1999)

(The edit also added dates for Pavel Sergeevich Alexandrov.) As can be seen by editing this section, that markup includes a note left inside a comment:

A.D. was born before the USSR was formed and died after it has disintegrated.

P.S. Alexandrov died still during the Soviet period, hence I am not modifying the USSR there...

This is potentially cryptic, especially since "P.S." is a relevant standard English abbreviation (and A.D. one at least associated with dates). One might infer the following confusing meaning:

A.D. [Alexandrov] ... died after [the USSR] has disintegrated.

P[ost].S[cript]. [i.e., "Oh, i forgot to say:", or "By the way, though it didn't fit in well above, i'll mention this:"] [this same] Alexandrov died still during the Soviet period [which extends beyond that disintegration] ...

But that would be mistaken:

"A.D." and "P.S." should be understood in the context of the Russian practice of referring to males by their given name and their patronymic, i.e. what English-speakers generally construe simply as "a middle name", and

the involvement in the edit of "another Alexandrov" must be kept in mind.

The editor implies fairly clearly that they ignored the fact that Aleksandr Danilovich Aleksandrov was a Soviet citizen for roughly ages 6 thru 78, seeing the birth and death status as reason to label him with "Russia". IMO the correct construction of the part starting with "P.S." is:

In contrast, Pavel who was Sergei's son died as a Soviet, so i let his nationality stand as "USSR" rather than changing it to "Russia".

--Jerzy(t) 16:20, 2004 Aug 31 (UTC)

Do cryptographers and geneticists belong here?

I am in process of putting here the mathematicins from the list of mathematical topics. The question is, should I also list the cryptographers from there? I couple I saw are Étienne Bazeries and Whitfield Diffie. Thanks. Oleg Alexandrov 03:10, 24 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I finished adding the mathematicians from the list of mathematical topics (well, the ones which are in a mathematician category and not the redlinks). There are some people whom I don't know what to do about. I place them here, feel free to add them if you believe it is useful. I will remove them from the list of mathematical topics. Oleg Alexandrov 01:01, 29 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Étienne Bazeries -- military cryptanalyst

Whitfield Diffie -- cryptographer

William F. Friedman -- cryptologist

Martin Hellman -- cryptologist

Bruce Schneier -- cryptographer

John Maynard Smith -- evolutionary biologist and geneticist