Brian Conrey
Mad About Math
If your idea of math is mindnumbing formulas that are irrelevant to daily life , you haven ’ t met Brian Conrey .
Dr . Conrey is the Executive Director of the American Institute of Math ( AIM ), a hub for mathematical research into problems like water scarcity . He is also founder of an outreach program called Morgan Hill Math that is quietly transforming the way kids experience math . Conrey pursues both roles with passion , curiosity and a fun-loving mindset that even mathophobes find appealing .
As an academic and a business leader , Conrey has not only mentored math enthusiasts of all ages and levels of skill for more than 30 years , but his own research is connected with one of math ’ s greatest mysteries of all time .
Tackling the Riemann Hypothesis
Conrey studied mathematics at Santa Clara University , earned a PhD from the University of Michigan , and advanced from professor to Chairman of the Mathematics Department at the University of Oklahoma- Stillwater . During that time he decided to focus his research on the Riemann Hypothesis , a prime number theorem put forth by a German mathematician in the late 1800s .
In 1989 , Conrey published research that provided the strongest support of the
Riemann Hypothesis in more than one hundred years .
“ The Riemann Hypothesis is at the core of all mathematics ,” Conrey explained . “ It has to do with the fundamental relationship between addition and multiplication . Even today ’ s supercomputers have only been able to check the first 10 trillion results , but it ’ s an infinite proposition .”
In the late 1990s , Conrey received a letter from John Fry , a fellow Santa Clara University alum and the founder of Fry ’ s Electronics . Fry had launched the American Institute of Math as a non-profit organization dedicated to mathematics research , and he wanted Conrey on his team .
Taking AIM at Collaboration
“ John wanted AIM to solve important mathematics problems through collaboration , rather than in the traditional , very insular way that mathematicians had done their research in the past ,” Conrey said .
After attending several meetings at which AIM ’ s advisory board was considering what problems they should research , Conrey suggested they look at the Riemann Hypothesis , but the board rejected the suggestion as too risky . Undaunted , he took the advice of his former thesis advisor at the University of Michigan and held a conference on the topic . The event succeeded in refocusing attention on the Riemann Hypothesis within the math community
Impressed with Conrey ’ s work , AIM ’ s board members invited him to become Executive Director of the Institute . He left Oklahoma for the Bay Area to set up the Institute ’ s first offices in 1997 .
“ Our vision for AIM required a cultural shift because mathematicians tend to be introverted and we wanted our workshops to be collaborative . We developed a rather elaborate process to brief participants on proposed topics so they could get up to speed quickly ; discuss , rank and vote on problems they wanted to work on ; and tackle the problems by working in smaller groups .”
The idea worked . AIM ’ s workshops quickly filled and more were added . Research coming out of the workshops began to make its mark within the broader international community and helped AIM win funding support from the National Science Foundation .
Math and Mother Earth
In 2013 , AIM took part in a global initiative called Mathematics Planet Earth to showcase the importance of math in understanding the complex challenges of sustaining life on Earth . It connected mathematicians with experts from other disciplines and focused attention on tough questions regarding food and water insecurity , methods of cancer treatment , use of earthquake data to understand the
G M H T O D A Y M A G A Z I N E MAY / JUNE 2015 gmhtoday . com
37