1 00:00:00,351 --> 00:00:03,268 (mysterious music) 2 00:00:07,150 --> 00:00:10,180 Ramanujan was an astonishing mathematician 3 00:00:10,180 --> 00:00:13,683 who left behind thousands of mathematical formulas. 4 00:00:14,780 --> 00:00:17,960 He was a two time college dropout 5 00:00:17,960 --> 00:00:22,223 who was born in South India in the late 19 century. 6 00:00:23,220 --> 00:00:27,030 He believed at his goddess, a Hindu goddess named Namagiri. 7 00:00:27,030 --> 00:00:28,680 He believed that Namagiri would just 8 00:00:28,680 --> 00:00:31,910 offer him formulas as gifts 9 00:00:31,910 --> 00:00:34,403 which she ended up recording in his notebooks. 10 00:00:36,320 --> 00:00:39,960 Ramanujan, he might as well have been living in a desert. 11 00:00:39,960 --> 00:00:44,360 Nobody around him understood anything that he wrote down. 12 00:00:44,360 --> 00:00:47,210 So in desperation, he ended up writing some 13 00:00:47,210 --> 00:00:51,760 of the most distinguished mathematicians in Western Europe. 14 00:00:51,760 --> 00:00:55,913 And one of these mathematicians was G.H. Hardy. 15 00:00:56,790 --> 00:00:59,210 Hardy discovered together with his colleague, 16 00:00:59,210 --> 00:01:02,410 John Littlewood, that Ramanujan had to be a genius, 17 00:01:02,410 --> 00:01:07,090 at least a genius in terms of imagination and creativity. 18 00:01:07,090 --> 00:01:09,720 So, Hardy arranged for the most extraordinary fellowship 19 00:01:09,720 --> 00:01:12,730 to attend perhaps one of the two or three 20 00:01:12,730 --> 00:01:15,203 best universities on the planet, Cambridge. 21 00:01:16,130 --> 00:01:19,370 But over time, Hardy began to see that Ramanujan 22 00:01:19,370 --> 00:01:24,370 truly was someone who could make fundamental advances 23 00:01:25,140 --> 00:01:28,310 to how mathematics should be done. 24 00:01:28,310 --> 00:01:32,830 Hundreds of his formulas have ended up serving as prototypes 25 00:01:32,830 --> 00:01:34,650 for theories that the mathematicians 26 00:01:34,650 --> 00:01:39,100 of the 20th and 21st century have gone on to develop; 27 00:01:39,100 --> 00:01:43,130 the study of black holes, mathematics of the Internet, 28 00:01:43,130 --> 00:01:46,410 even the mathematics that power your phone. 29 00:01:46,410 --> 00:01:48,400 How he intuited these formulas? 30 00:01:48,400 --> 00:01:51,750 I don't know and how he anticipated with the future 31 00:01:51,750 --> 00:01:55,000 of mathematics and physics would be is beyond me. 32 00:01:55,000 --> 00:01:57,960 There's a spiritual element to all of that. 33 00:01:57,960 --> 00:02:01,430 What if Ramanujan had not written out to Hardy? 34 00:02:01,430 --> 00:02:05,130 Or what if Hardy had not responded and noticed glimpses 35 00:02:05,130 --> 00:02:07,960 of genius in that first letter he wrote? 36 00:02:07,960 --> 00:02:10,510 Well that's a world I cannot fathom 37 00:02:13,114 --> 00:02:14,520 (calm piano music) 38 00:02:14,520 --> 00:02:18,050 Future of society depends on good science. 39 00:02:18,050 --> 00:02:23,050 We need those minds that propel science forward. 40 00:02:23,140 --> 00:02:24,360 We're not short of people 41 00:02:24,360 --> 00:02:26,440 who can solve differential equations 42 00:02:26,440 --> 00:02:29,710 that are taught at the best schools. 43 00:02:29,710 --> 00:02:33,501 What we are short of are the next generation 44 00:02:33,501 --> 00:02:36,683 of Einsteins, Newtons and Ramanujan. 45 00:02:38,010 --> 00:02:42,123 Genius cannot be taught, it can only be nurtured. 46 00:02:43,300 --> 00:02:46,650 The Spirit of Ramanujan Math Talent Initiative 47 00:02:46,650 --> 00:02:48,680 is a global search. 48 00:02:48,680 --> 00:02:50,970 We had this idea of the strong belief 49 00:02:50,970 --> 00:02:55,670 that genius exists and resides all over the world, 50 00:02:55,670 --> 00:02:57,970 that we should use the story of Ramanujan 51 00:02:57,970 --> 00:03:00,450 to search for this talent. 52 00:03:00,450 --> 00:03:02,650 Young people with great promise, 53 00:03:02,650 --> 00:03:07,460 they are often outliers, they're often so, so far ahead 54 00:03:07,460 --> 00:03:10,000 of their classes that the teachers 55 00:03:10,000 --> 00:03:11,710 don't know what to do with them. 56 00:03:11,710 --> 00:03:16,630 We want to be the Hardy for, for those brilliant students 57 00:03:16,630 --> 00:03:19,200 who are working in isolation. 58 00:03:19,200 --> 00:03:21,320 It's our way of paying forward 59 00:03:21,320 --> 00:03:23,620 the wonderful things that have happened to us. 60 00:03:24,690 --> 00:03:27,850 If you slide this loop down just a bit 61 00:03:27,850 --> 00:03:31,433 you end up with a shape like this. 62 00:03:33,040 --> 00:03:37,340 And then, you can untwist that loop right there. 63 00:03:37,340 --> 00:03:40,370 I was always a studious kid, I liked school 64 00:03:40,370 --> 00:03:44,810 and math (mumbles), I didn't feel 65 00:03:44,810 --> 00:03:46,333 one way or another about it. 66 00:03:47,200 --> 00:03:50,130 I considered myself to be more of a humanities person 67 00:03:50,130 --> 00:03:53,570 and in the ninth grade when I had my first class 68 00:03:53,570 --> 00:03:57,050 with Katherine Socha, it was really interesting 69 00:03:57,050 --> 00:03:59,840 and the types of math that we were doing. 70 00:03:59,840 --> 00:04:03,830 I really enjoyed doing combinatorics with her. 71 00:04:03,830 --> 00:04:05,550 You can tell when somebody brings 72 00:04:05,550 --> 00:04:07,740 a kind of joy to their work. 73 00:04:07,740 --> 00:04:09,510 There's a willingness to fail, 74 00:04:09,510 --> 00:04:13,180 to be wrong, to try again, to persist. 75 00:04:13,180 --> 00:04:15,560 Now I do math, I'm doing it because 76 00:04:15,560 --> 00:04:17,170 I want to solve the problem. 77 00:04:17,170 --> 00:04:18,480 When I was in Katherine's class 78 00:04:18,480 --> 00:04:20,530 the point wasn't to learn math 79 00:04:20,530 --> 00:04:22,850 so that you could get an A in the test. 80 00:04:22,850 --> 00:04:25,130 The point was to understand the new concept 81 00:04:25,130 --> 00:04:27,580 and see the world in a different way. 82 00:04:27,580 --> 00:04:29,580 Kendall really seems to have enjoyed 83 00:04:29,580 --> 00:04:31,610 puzzling things out for herself. 84 00:04:31,610 --> 00:04:33,810 She does not wanna be told the answer. 85 00:04:33,810 --> 00:04:36,180 She doesn't wanna be told a solution strategy 86 00:04:36,180 --> 00:04:37,864 or given lots of hints. 87 00:04:37,864 --> 00:04:39,860 (calm instrumental music) 88 00:04:39,860 --> 00:04:41,360 I had her work through a set 89 00:04:41,360 --> 00:04:44,140 of classical problems in graph theory. 90 00:04:44,140 --> 00:04:46,420 For two months on an impossible problem 91 00:04:46,420 --> 00:04:48,620 and she did it, she worked everyday 92 00:04:48,620 --> 00:04:50,770 on this problem for two months. 93 00:04:50,770 --> 00:04:54,950 And then finally, with a few guiding questions from me 94 00:04:54,950 --> 00:04:56,810 and from some of my colleagues, 95 00:04:56,810 --> 00:04:59,890 she proved that it was actually impossible 96 00:04:59,890 --> 00:05:01,640 and that's delightful. 97 00:05:01,640 --> 00:05:05,070 It was two months, it's a really long time. 98 00:05:05,070 --> 00:05:08,600 I would take some time in class and work on it by myself. 99 00:05:08,600 --> 00:05:10,420 I'd work a little bit at home. 100 00:05:10,420 --> 00:05:13,470 I just kind of wanted to see what the answer was. 101 00:05:13,470 --> 00:05:16,150 That's remarkable for a young student 102 00:05:16,150 --> 00:05:18,170 to persist so long on something 103 00:05:18,170 --> 00:05:20,030 that they don't know how to do 104 00:05:20,030 --> 00:05:21,720 and to try different strategies 105 00:05:21,720 --> 00:05:23,770 rather than to, to spin their wheels 106 00:05:23,770 --> 00:05:26,410 over and over and over in the same strategy. 107 00:05:26,410 --> 00:05:27,670 That works (mumbles) 108 00:05:27,670 --> 00:05:29,620 Under, this also works. 109 00:05:29,620 --> 00:05:33,980 I think math is beautiful just in the idea 110 00:05:33,980 --> 00:05:38,410 that you can use it as the means of exploration 111 00:05:38,410 --> 00:05:40,790 and discovery of the world around you 112 00:05:40,790 --> 00:05:43,770 and in terms of understanding how 113 00:05:43,770 --> 00:05:46,720 you as a person solve problems that it's, 114 00:05:46,720 --> 00:05:50,010 it's even a method of self-discovery and I would argue 115 00:05:50,010 --> 00:05:54,940 that that's really crucial to somebody's development. 116 00:05:54,940 --> 00:05:57,560 I love the satisfaction of finally finishing 117 00:05:57,560 --> 00:05:59,560 a problem after so much hard work. 118 00:05:59,560 --> 00:06:01,450 Math is probably the most pure subject 119 00:06:01,450 --> 00:06:04,060 out of all of the sciences and that really interests me. 120 00:06:04,060 --> 00:06:06,480 Everything is all logical and it's easy 121 00:06:06,480 --> 00:06:08,150 to understand once you get the concepts 122 00:06:08,150 --> 00:06:11,590 and that's what drew me to math in the first place. 123 00:06:11,590 --> 00:06:13,880 It's everywhere, nature, all around us, 124 00:06:13,880 --> 00:06:16,450 the golden ratio, fibonacci sequence. 125 00:06:16,450 --> 00:06:18,710 Everything is always interconnected. 126 00:06:18,710 --> 00:06:20,940 There's always something left to learn. 127 00:06:20,940 --> 00:06:23,310 There's always something left to know 128 00:06:23,310 --> 00:06:26,233 and just the way that there's no end to it. 129 00:06:27,523 --> 00:06:30,023 (piano music) 130 00:06:33,350 --> 00:06:35,440 So I first met Dean 131 00:06:35,440 --> 00:06:37,535 in my advanced math class here at Emory 132 00:06:37,535 --> 00:06:39,830 This little boy is sitting in the front seat, 133 00:06:39,830 --> 00:06:40,850 that's two or three years ago, 134 00:06:40,850 --> 00:06:43,980 it's not like you're very big yet, next to your mom. 135 00:06:43,980 --> 00:06:47,330 Your legs are swinging under the seats like that 136 00:06:47,330 --> 00:06:49,600 and I started lecturing I think about 137 00:06:49,600 --> 00:06:52,890 Fermat's last theorem, no, Fermat's little theorem I think 138 00:06:52,890 --> 00:06:56,150 and as it's typical in a class that I would teach. 139 00:06:56,150 --> 00:06:57,950 I like to ask questions to the class, 140 00:06:57,950 --> 00:07:00,370 right, the class wants to participate. 141 00:07:00,370 --> 00:07:03,280 But within 15 minutes, like nobody wanted to participate 142 00:07:03,280 --> 00:07:04,950 which is unusual for my class 143 00:07:04,950 --> 00:07:07,620 because Dean is answering all the questions. 144 00:07:07,620 --> 00:07:11,340 Who is this boy whose hands go up immediately 145 00:07:11,340 --> 00:07:12,710 answering all the questions? 146 00:07:12,710 --> 00:07:14,850 So that's how I first met Dean 147 00:07:14,850 --> 00:07:17,930 and I've never seen anything like that before in my life 148 00:07:17,930 --> 00:07:20,890 and I've been a professor for almost 30 years. 149 00:07:20,890 --> 00:07:23,590 An answer means like it's done 150 00:07:23,590 --> 00:07:25,650 and it implies that there's nothing else to be done, 151 00:07:25,650 --> 00:07:27,430 but there's always something else to be done. 152 00:07:27,430 --> 00:07:29,110 So I think the question is way more important 153 00:07:29,110 --> 00:07:31,570 because even if it's not answered it can lead 154 00:07:31,570 --> 00:07:33,780 to many other (mumbles) many other important theorems 155 00:07:33,780 --> 00:07:35,650 like the Riemann hypothesis's just a question. 156 00:07:35,650 --> 00:07:37,600 It hasn't been answered yet. 157 00:07:37,600 --> 00:07:41,630 What he exhibited there is more than youthful enthusiasm. 158 00:07:41,630 --> 00:07:46,270 It's the ability to see where the research leads 159 00:07:46,270 --> 00:07:50,060 which is the kind of questions that I'm trying to ask 160 00:07:50,060 --> 00:07:53,560 to cultivate my students and he was basically 161 00:07:53,560 --> 00:07:55,933 on fire then and he still is. 162 00:07:56,790 --> 00:07:59,260 Ramanujan defined this function called Delta 163 00:08:00,450 --> 00:08:02,950 which is equal to q times its infinite product 164 00:08:02,950 --> 00:08:05,580 with minus q to the end of the 24th. 165 00:08:05,580 --> 00:08:07,690 I'm the son of a mathematician 166 00:08:07,690 --> 00:08:10,070 and so as a young boy, I didn't know that there were 167 00:08:10,070 --> 00:08:13,940 any other occupations other than being a mathematician. 168 00:08:13,940 --> 00:08:15,970 Mathematics I feel it is being 169 00:08:15,970 --> 00:08:19,910 much closer to poetry and music 170 00:08:19,910 --> 00:08:24,080 and what we look for are patterns and numbers 171 00:08:24,080 --> 00:08:25,780 which often end up becoming the model 172 00:08:25,780 --> 00:08:28,610 for patterns in the universe 173 00:08:28,610 --> 00:08:31,310 and that deep intricate structure 174 00:08:31,310 --> 00:08:32,910 makes you have to believe that there's something 175 00:08:32,910 --> 00:08:36,210 very spiritual going on underlying how the universe 176 00:08:36,210 --> 00:08:39,113 and how numbers are required to behave. 177 00:08:40,450 --> 00:08:42,880 By the time I was in middle school, 178 00:08:42,880 --> 00:08:45,100 I actually didn't really like mathematics. 179 00:08:45,100 --> 00:08:46,770 It seemed like a chore. 180 00:08:46,770 --> 00:08:49,420 I didn't become passionate about mathematics 181 00:08:49,420 --> 00:08:51,520 almost until my early 20s. 182 00:08:51,520 --> 00:08:54,400 In graduate school, in the early 1990s, 183 00:08:54,400 --> 00:08:57,370 a book came out called The Man Who Knew Infinity. 184 00:08:57,370 --> 00:08:59,500 It's great book about Ramanujan 185 00:08:59,500 --> 00:09:01,403 and I fell in love with the story. 186 00:09:03,400 --> 00:09:05,640 Ramanujan is, he's a legend of mathematics. 187 00:09:05,640 --> 00:09:08,230 He created all of his formulas all on his own 188 00:09:08,230 --> 00:09:10,880 and that really inspires me because if he can do it 189 00:09:10,880 --> 00:09:13,350 maybe I can aspire to be (mumbles) 190 00:09:13,350 --> 00:09:14,950 and create some of the things 191 00:09:14,950 --> 00:09:17,001 that he did like a number theory. 192 00:09:17,001 --> 00:09:19,210 (happy music) 193 00:09:19,210 --> 00:09:21,600 The experience of sort of moving forward 194 00:09:21,600 --> 00:09:24,040 and accelerating my track in mathematics 195 00:09:24,040 --> 00:09:27,970 has led me to believe that challenging yourself 196 00:09:27,970 --> 00:09:32,540 is more important than taking the easy road. 197 00:09:32,540 --> 00:09:34,263 We don't manufacture genius. 198 00:09:35,110 --> 00:09:38,900 Society can only lose genius because genius is tend to be 199 00:09:38,900 --> 00:09:41,770 outliers, people who don't fit in 200 00:09:41,770 --> 00:09:45,210 and I think the program such as the Spirit of Ramanujan 201 00:09:45,210 --> 00:09:50,210 will go someway to first detecting genius and then nurturing 202 00:09:51,210 --> 00:09:53,860 these young students all over the world 203 00:09:54,840 --> 00:09:58,510 so that they know that their gifts can be 204 00:09:58,510 --> 00:10:00,610 potentially put to good use in the future.