John Milnor - The Abel Prize interview 2011

02:33 Beginnings, Aptitude, "socially maladjusted"
03:40 Putnam, Math. as problem-solving
04:10 First paper (at 18 yo)
06:10 John Nash, Princeton
07:45 games: Kriegspiel, Go, Nash
09:25 game theory
10:35 knot theory, Papakyriakopoulos
15:45 manifolds
17:55 dim. 7 manifolds
20:35 collaboration with Serre, Thom
22:25 dim. 4 being very difficult
24:15 terminology, labelling
26:15 the Hauptvermutung
28:40 thinking geometrically, visualization
29:50 thinking algebraically, quadratic forms (Serre's exposition helped), K-theory
32:25 the Milnor conjecture (Voevodsky proved)
33:10 algebraic K-theory
35:10 groups of intermediate growth (Grigorchuk)
38:05 real and complex dynamics, Thurston
40:00 Kneading theory
43:20 computers in math.; experimental math.
47:40 writing textbooks, exposition
48:27 convince oneself of understanding by writing it down so one can understand it
48:50 mathematical writing, history of math.
50:15 impressionable mathematicians
51:20 aha moments
52:40 modern influences on math.
54:25 value of many working independently
55:40 the value of mathematics
56:25 other interests

Interview in written. Notices of the American Mathematical Society:
https://www.ams.org/notices/201203/rt...

The Abel interview 2011: John Milnor
Interviewers: Mathematicians Martin Raussen og Christian Skau Produced by UniMedia