Edmund Whittaker Professor of Mathematical Sciences, University of Edinburgh
Professor of Mathematics, Heriot-Watt University
Fellow of King's College Cambridge
Artwork by Son Yein
Current Writing
A selection of current essays
Column for Hankyoreh Newspaper
(Korean) This is a regular column written for Hankyoreh, the leading progressive media outlet in Korea. When I started in 2020, I tried to stick to topics that were mostly mathematical, but have gradually allowed myself to expand into cultural commentary.
History, Identity, and Ownership in Mathematics
This is an article on the global heritage of mathematics published in the Notices of the American Mathematical Society, September 2025. Historian Reviel Netz kindly wrote a response in the same issue. This is a conversation I would like to publicise widely for the time being, so I'm placing the link here. It is a projection to the realm of mathematics of the general observation that the world does not divide into civilisations.
Introduction to Korean edition of Martin Gardner's Colossal Book of Mathematics
(Korean) Some personal reflections on Mathematical Games, perhaps my only 'extra-curricular' contact with mathematics in my teens. The book is coming out 2026 in Korea.
Miscellaneous books: Korean editions
(Korean) While looking through my files recently, I realised I had been commissioned numerous times to write introductions to Korean editions of well-known books. I will never get organised enough to put them all in order, but here is a random selection: Enzenberger's Number Devil, Hossenfelder's Lost in Math, Kitagawa and Revell's Secret History of Numbers, Hart's Once Upon a Prime, Szpiro's Risk, Choice, and Uncertainty, Nirenberg and Nirenberg's Uncountable, Strogatz's Joy of X.
Cover blurb for Korean edition of Cormac McCarthy's Stella Maris
(Korean) This is just a very short blurb commissioned by the publisher few years ago. I leave it here now to call attention to a question that I still find puzzling: Why was McCarthy interested in topos theory of all things?
(Korean with English translation) I interviewed a number of mathematicians in 2025 while making a propaganda film for the ICMS. One of them was Rita Teixera Da Costa, who works on the stability of black holes. Her approach to research was intriguing and inspiring, leading me to write about it in an essay for the magazine Positive Thinking.
Why we still can't solve most equations
This short article was published in 2025 in Scientific American. I make this version available because it's slightly more accurate and contains reference to the Egyptian mathematician Diophantus. I chose that descriptor because it seemed most compatible with the way we attach identities to ancient personages about whom we know little. The editor changed 'Egyptian' to 'Greek' without consulting me and I let it stand.
On the duality of numbers and figures
This article was commissioned by the University of Edinburgh Journal to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the article A Mathematician Views His Subject by A.C. Aitken, the Chair of Pure Mathematics in Edinburgh at the time it was written.
Some older essays
Michael Atiyah and the Mediterranean,
An obituary for the London Mathematical Society including memories of my conversations with Atiyah during his last years. (Scroll to page 43.)
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in Seoul
Memories of learning about music in my teens through the recordings of the great German baritone, accessed with difficulty in those days. Written shortly after his death.
This was written a while ago after viewing the 2023 film Past Lives by Celine Song. I wrote a review in Korean for my Hankyoreh column. However, I had written a longer version in English first. A few of my friends thought it of interest and suggested I make it available.
A contribution to Korean edition of `Les Dechiffreurs', written mostly to publicise the travel that goes with research mathematics and the enrichment of encounters with people from all over the world.
A brief reflection on education (unpublished).
Material, Structure, and Music.
In 2013, the KAOS foundation sponsored a talk concert featuring lectures and a conversation between the composer Unsuk Chin, Hyungju Park, and me. This is the text of my lecture.
In preparation
Critical Reflections: Greek Mathematics from a Contemporary Perspective
Article for The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mathematics
History and the Practicing Mathematician
Article for Cambridge History of Mathematics
Mathematics, Language, and Reality
Contribution to book Next Science 2027, Wisdom House Publishers
Books
Professor Kim's Mathematical Adventure Team
The five volume series of illustrated books for children with writer Taeho Kim and cartoonist Hong Seung Woo was finally finished in January 2026. You couldn't tell from the title, but the story is about a mathematician who discovers a quantum computer and immediately goes missing. His two daughters wander around London as well as a strange maze of memories to find him, aided by Schroedinger's cat.
The World is Full of Beautiful Problems: How a Mathematician Loves the World
A selection of essays from my newspaper column was published in autumn 2025.
If Music Were to Disappear Tomorrow
This is the text of conversations with cellist Yang Sung-Won, which took place over a few years and was published in summer 2024. Professor Yang was extremely patient and generous during this period, putting up with a lot of stupidity and provocative questions on my part.
Forthcoming
A Mathematician Reads Philosophy
Book project for Gimmyoung Publishers
Middle School Mathematics for Grownups
Book project for Woongjin ThinkBig
Current Events
The p-adic Section Conjecture (following OpenAI)
Factorisation Algebras in Quantum Field Theory and Arithmetic Geometry
Retreat for African Women in Mathematical Sciences 2026
Thematic Month by Young African Researchers: Topics in Arithmetic Geometry
This is a hybrid event organized within the framework of the African Network for Arithmetic Geometry and Applications (ANAGA) which aims to develop arithmetic geometry in Africa. It is funded by the International Centre for Mathematical Sciences (ICMS) through their Mathematics for Humanity programme. One of the main goals of ANAGA is to train a new generation of researchers who will serve as a lever for the training of future generations. This meeting is an important milestone in that training process.
This thematic month is a 4-week session that mixes advanced courses, research talks and working groups.
The goal of this workshop is to bring together researchers in computational materials science and mathematics to discuss mathematical models and algorithms essential for understanding and simulating materials at the atomic, molecular, and particle scales. Set against the backdrop of emerging high-performance computational resources, such as the UK’s forthcoming first exascale supercomputer to be sited in Edinburgh, the workshop will focus on the development of new mathematical and algorithmic methodologies aiming to make the most of the computational power of future computer architectures in materials simulation. The workshop will stimulate research collaborations between researchers from the UK, EU and USA, and will offer the opportunity for mathematicians to learn more about the new challenges and opportunities these computational platforms will bring.
Knowledge Exchange Event: Rewilding
Achieving sustainable human-wildlife coexistence in well-functioning ecosystems is a vitally important and major challenge under global change. In this context, Rewilding, an emerging paradigm in ecosystem restoration, is viewed by a growing number of scientists as central to the restoration agenda. Rewilding differs from more established conservation approaches as it de-emphasizes efforts towards preserving or bringing back certain focal species or habitats, in favour of prioritising the connectivity and health of the ecosystem as a whole. More precisely, the emphasis is on restoration of ecosystem services (such as pollination, water purification, carbon storage, etc) and their underpinning ecosystem functions. Other defining features of rewilding are the requirement of minimal ongoing management and viewing ecosystems as social-ecological systems. The purpose of this KE event is to bring together academic and non-academic scientists in mathematics and ecology, in order to tackle some of the practical problems related to rewilding. The ICMS has previously funded a term long programme, Rewilding mathematics. The perspectives paper Mathematical Perspectives on Rewilding is the outcome of that programme and the theoretical premise of this KE event.
In preparation
Organisers: Minhyong Kim and Robin Osborne
Academic Advisory Board: Lorraine Daston, Marina Warner, Glenn Most, Reviel Netz, Suzanne Conklin Akbari, Peter Frankopan, Reinhard Strohm, and Mark Jarzombek.
This workshop will bring together leading experts with global perspectives in a broad spectrum of disciplines, including mathematics, natural science, music, social science, literature, visual arts/architecture, technology, and philosophy.
This is the first in a programme of events intended to provide students and early career researchers with a rigorous introduction to global connectivity in academia, society, and culture at large, in the past as well as in the present.
This programme is an outgrowth of the Mathematics for Humanity project of the International Centre for Mathematical Sciences in Edinburgh, especially events on the global nature of the mathematical tradition and current day practice.
My main preoccupation at the moment is a new project of the ICMS with the name Mathematics for Humanity. It's main goal is to support mathematical activities around the world with potential for direct impact on the betterment of the human condition. A subsidiary goal is to provide a unifying umbrella for many things of this nature that mathematicians are already doing. By providing this unifying framework, I hope the value of such activity is better recognised and that the practioner can enjoy a greater sense of mission. Please look at the webpage linked above and submit proposals for activities. I hope especially to attract new ideas from young mathematicians as well as senior mathematicians interested in running their usual research programmes in parallel with contributions to global welfare.
Article in Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator Science Breakthrough Radar
Other Recent Events
Simons Foundation Conference on Eisenstein Ideals and Galois Representations
Presentation at GESDA Summit 2025: Mathematics and Machines
An ICMS Meeting for Peace: America-Europe-Middle East Webinar on Fundamental Physics
Diophantine Equations and the Theory of Computation: A Lecture Series
CMSA Lectures: Arithmetic Topology and Field Theory
Workshop on Mathematics and Literature
ICMS Director's Public Lecture: The ABC Mysteries
Public Lecture at UNAM, Mexico City: What Kind of Story is Mathematics?
Summary
I am a mathematician working primarily on arithmetic geometry, the study of spaces built out of finitely-generated systems of numbers. My main contribution to mathematics is the discovery of the non-abelian method of Chabauty, a theoretical framework for applying ideas of topology, especially homotopy theory, to the algorithmic resolution of Diophantine equations. I am also interested in mathematical physics, the mathematical structure of matter and spacetime in general, and topological quantum field theory in particular.
I have a keen interest in public engagement. I have given numerous presentations since 2010 at schools, teacher training workshops, and corporate training programmes, as well as 'talk concerts' on a wide range of topics in mathematics and its interface with other domains of inquiry, especially physics and economics. If you are interested in having me at such an event, do not hesitate to contact me. I have published 16 books so far written for the general public. My interest in engagement is an important component of the way I've put together this site. I'm trying to make the material accessible and friendly to any curious person, even while providing standard information that might be useful for my colleagues in academia. I hope the style is not off-putting to the latter. However, I haven't anything like the energy and creativity that some of the serious communicators of science are able to put into their website. As a result, I fear that my modest effort here will look silly both to colleagues and to the general public. As an extension of public engagement, I am a consultant for WoongjinThinkbig, one of the oldest educational publishers in Korea. I am doing my best to help them develop educational software.
I have just finished my term as Director of the International Centre for Mathematical Sciences, a gathering place for mathematical scientists from all over the world, located in the beautiful city of Edinburgh. The city is surrounded by nature, as rugged as can be in a major city, even while it's steeped in history, including intellectual history. It's a real privilege to trace the footsteps of inspiring figures like David Hume, Adam Smith, Mary Somerville, James Clerk Maxwell, and Michael Atiyah on a daily basis.
I grew up in Seoul, Korea, studied mathematics at Seoul National University, then received my Ph.D. in Mathematics at Yale University under the direction of Igor Frenkel, Serge Lang, and Barry Mazur (Harvard). I moved on to faculty positions at MIT, Columbia University, the University of Arizona, Purdue University, the Korea Institute for Advanced Study, University College London, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Ewha Womans University, and the University of Oxford, where I was the head of the number theory research group. Most recently before moving to Edinburgh, I was Christopher Zeeman Professor of Algebra, Geometry, and Public Understanding of Mathematics at the University of Warwick.
It is perhaps not so well known that a mathematician's life involves a good deal of travel. In particular, I have held visiting professorships at numerous institutions including the University of Paris, University of Illinois, University of Kyoto, Seoul National University, ICTS Bangalore, and the University of Toronto.
I am a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the American Mathematical Society, and the UK Academy for the Mathematical Sciences.
From 'Relative Langlands Duality' by David Ben-Zvi, Yiannis Sakellaridis, and Akshay Venkatesh
What is Mathematics?
The part of physics where experiments are cheap. (V.I. Arnold, On Teaching Mathematics (1997)) [Maame Ama Bainson, a student of mathematical epidemiology and oncology, points out that this is wrong: computing costs for her modelling experiments are very high.]
It appears that mathematics as we know it arises from the nature of our brains and the embodied experience. (G. Lakoff and R. Nunez, Where Mathematics Comes From (2000))
The answer, it appears, is that any argument which is carried out with sufficient precision is mathematical. (D. Gale and L. Shapley, College Admissions and the Stability of Marriage (1962))
If all mathematics disappeared today, physics would be set back exactly one week. (R.P. Feynman, source unknown)
To those who do not know mathematics it is difficult to get across a real feeling as to the beauty, the deepest beauty, of nature ... If you want to learn about nature, to appreciate nature, it is necessary to understand the language that she speaks in. (R.P. Feynman, The Character of Physical Law (1965))
Its Applications (M. de Unamuno)