As a member of the Mathematical Association of America, one of the journals that I subscribe to is College Mathematics Journal. Of late, there has been a pleasant uptick in the number of articles that have been co-written by undergraduate researchers under the mentorship of faculty advisers, which is a terrific development for the field.
In the latest issue, one such article on knot theory appeared. Truth in advertising: I know next to nothing about knot theory, I do not know the authors, and I’ve only driven through Colorado College while on a recent vacation to Colorado Springs. With all that said, I love the opening paragraphs of their recent article, which are shown below.
The first sentence of the second paragraph grabbed my attention:
The other author, undeterred by the challenge of a long standing open problem, decided she wanted to look at this question for her senior thesis.
I absolutely love the moxie behind this sentiment. For the little it’s worth, I offer my congratulations to both authors.
More truth in advertising: usually, when I see a journal article that’s outside my realm of expertise, I’ll make a half-hearted stab at scanning it; with rare exceptions, I then give up and move on to the next article. For this article, however, given this wonderful introduction, I’ll do my best to read and (try to) understand the full article.
Mean Green Math 