I’m a first-year graduate student at Columbia’s Department of Mathematics, where I intend to specialize in algebraic number theory. In other words, so far I don’t deal directly with the abstract nonsense of category theory; rather, I deal with what is possibly the most abstract discipline of mathematics next to category theory.
Although my professional interest is in mathematics, I tend to get fascinated by most pursuits there are academic departments for. Socio-politically, I have a call for data any reader might possess, because I’m a sucker for political bloviating that incorporates real-world facts.
If you’re a native English speaker, you’re probably mispronouncing my name. The Hebrew pronunciation of my name is /a”lon/. In English I pronounce it /@”lAn/, which rhymes with “don” but not “gallon.” People have been known to call me Alan even online; I reserve the right to snark at anyone who does, even though I’m usually only cynical. Usually, the people who misspell my name online are those who hate my living guts; people have been known to spell my name correctly and then switch to the incorrect spelling once I irked them enough to merit flaming.
I was born in Tel Aviv in 7/1988, then moved to Singapore in 12/2000 courtesy of my parents, went to college at the thoroughly somnolent National University of Singapore, and then wound up starting grad school here.
I do memes. I don’t post them that often because in a year of blogging here and on UTI, I’ve never been tagged.
October 2, 2006 at 11:34 am |
why do i find this About Me totally hot? because Math is totally hot.
October 25, 2006 at 3:16 pm |
[...] 1. I updated my About page to give a little more information about me. I also updated my call for data to include one more statistic. [...]
October 25, 2006 at 3:46 pm |
“wound up starting grad school here”
That just makes it sound like you accidently fell into New York rather than applied and decided to go there based on where you were admitted.
December 18, 2006 at 6:26 am |
Squee! Algebraic Number Theory – I’m applying for a PhDs in that right now. What exactly do you do?
I also second the Math is hot comment.
December 18, 2006 at 2:07 pm |
I blog and pretend I do work.
Less sarcastically, I’m reading up on the theory of elliptic curves.
January 21, 2007 at 11:07 pm |
I’m not applying for any phd in algebraic theory.
February 5, 2007 at 7:16 pm |
Um, yeah. Math == hotness. I saw some comment you made on feministing.com, had your picture, and hi. I’m here to read your blog and just kind of bask in your brilliance. Not in a stalker way though. Just so you know. I like the glasses though.
February 11, 2007 at 7:50 pm |
I gotta say…I love your blog’s title and headline. Very clever.
February 11, 2007 at 8:02 pm |
Actually, at a world population of 6.5 billion, the number of non-readers is down to 6,499,999,000, mostly thanks to the Carnival of Mathematics.
February 20, 2007 at 1:37 am |
Nice blog.
March 6, 2007 at 2:18 am |
ZOMG!!1 The picture of Alon almost shows the back of his ear! WE CAME THIS FUCKING CLOSE TO ELECTING RUSS FEINGOLD PRESIDENT AND ALON BLEW IT!!!11eleven Thanks a lot.
[/inside joke]
March 15, 2007 at 2:25 pm |
Alon,
I’m deeply impressed, though for some reason that strikes me as slightly insulting to you. At any rate I am. I aspire to do great things in mathematics, but it’s a bit of a love hate relationship, as I am having an affair with philosophy. Now which to study and woo in grad school??
April 3, 2007 at 6:21 pm |
Oh my god,,,not yours…but mine…well….sorta mine…at least that’s what they told me to think…..ANYWAYS…Oh my God!…..It’s Screech!
August 17, 2007 at 11:17 pm |
wow- you’re only 19!
August 26, 2007 at 11:40 pm |
actually math is hotter than hot… maybe hot^3 or hawt, or hawt^4, burning^7, scorching^11, etc, ad infinitum… you get the point-
-qed
September 6, 2007 at 12:38 am |
Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the King, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.
September 6, 2007 at 12:57 am |
Build a man a fire, and he’ll be warm for a day Set a man on fire, and he’ll be warm for the rest of his life — Terry Pratchett
September 8, 2007 at 2:26 am |
In all large corporations, there is a pervasive fear that someone, somewhere is having fun with a computer on company time Networks help alleviate that fear — John C Dvorak
September 8, 2007 at 4:16 am |
What a cruel thing is war: to separate and destroy families and friends, and mar the purest joys and happiness God has granted us in this world; to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbors, and to devastate the fair face of this beautiful world — Robert E Lee, letter to his wife, 1864
November 19, 2007 at 12:38 pm |
OMA!! {Oh my Allah} I fail to understand Mathematics as strongly as you fail in English. You’ve ended a sentence with a preposition: “Although my professional interest is in mathematics, I tend to get fascinated by most pursuits there are academic departments for.”, would read more properly as something like akin to the following: “I tend to become quite fascinated by a larger proportion of those pursuits for which there are Academic Departments.”
The good thing here is that Mathematics, while in an extremely minor (and sometimes corrective) flux, will never invert upon itself, as does language. We Americans do not “speak English” any longer, we talk “American”.
I envy and admire your grasp of Math indeed! Continue to seek that which you enjoy and disregard those around you who “put you down” based upon their own pettyness (”y” intended) and jealously! The world is full of “wannabe’s”; performers like you are rare indeed!
)
November 29, 2007 at 10:40 pm |
So u’r 19 and u’r a graduate student:) That sounds awesome. I’m 19 also, born on 03/1988, but I’m in my first year (in Computer Science).
July 13, 2008 at 3:46 pm |
cool
November 13, 2008 at 1:47 am |
Hi! Just found your blog here, really enjoy it. I’m studying math at Brown – I’m only a freshman, but I’ve got some basic Galois theory and number theory under my belt, and I’m interested in exploring algebraic number theory further. I’m also what I would describe as atheist / culturally Jewish.
I found your blog while I was looking around the tubes to find out how infinite Galois theory works, and I’d just finished learning about limits/colimits in my algebra class, so when I read your explanation, it just clicked.
Anyways, keep up the interesting posts! Good luck in grad school!
December 1, 2008 at 6:14 pm |
[...] 2006 at 9:49pm ESTThe Mathematics of Talent and Where Hipness Began Over at Abstract Nonsense, Alon Levy has interesting posts on both. Check them [...]
June 24, 2009 at 11:10 am |
[...] yet: As the (not so godless?) Alon says in a subsequent comment, “Ron Coleman, you’re the first person I see use the word spirituality to mean [...]