How football star John Urschel ended up studying math at the Institute for Advanced Study

[pnwmom]

Last edited Tue Apr 19, 2022, 06:06 PM - Edit history (1)

The Institute is where Albert Einstein studied, in Princeton, N.J.

On edit:

This is an interesting article about him from MIT, where he studied for his PHD.

https://news.mit.edu/2019/student-john-urschel-math-football-0515

Grad student John Urschel tackles his lifelong balance of math and football in new memoir

“Being capable of thinking quantitatively — it’s the single most important thing,” says the former NFL lineman.

[erronis]

1. Wonderful story! Incredible person.

Thank you, pwnmom!

[pnwmom]

3. You're welcome!

There's more about him here. He's had an amazing life so far.

https://news.mit.edu/2019/student-john-urschel-math-football-0515

[xocetaceans]

2. Thanks for posting this. It's very cool. "Stay curious!" is a great message. n/t

[pnwmom]

4. You might be interested in this piece, too.

https://news.mit.edu/2019/student-john-urschel-math-football-0515

[xocetaceans]

5. Thanks - that's a cool piece as well.

Here is a podcast from 2020 on which he is interviewed:

The Joy of x | February 25, 2020
John Urschel: From NFL Player to Mathematician

John Urschel, who retired from playing professional football with the Baltimore Ravens to become a mathematician, talks to host Steven Strogatz about the fascinations of graph theory that lured him away from the NFL.

John Urschel is a doctoral student in mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who has already published several well-received papers. What’s even more remarkable is that before pursuing his Ph.D., he played professional football for three seasons with the Baltimore Ravens. Urschel talks to host Steven Strogatz about juggling two demanding careers, his decision to trade in football for math, and the kinds of math problems that fascinate him. This episode was produced by Camille Petersen. Read more at QuantaMagazine.org. Production and original music by Story Mechanics.

...

https://www.quantamagazine.org/john-urschel-from-nfl-player-to-mathematician-20200225/

For the sake of completeness, here's his thesis:

Graphs, Principal Minors, and Eigenvalue Problems
by
John C. Urschel

Submitted to the Department of Mathematics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Mathematics at the MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

September 2021

https://math.mit.edu/~urschel/publications/thesis.pdf

[pnwmom]

6. Thanks!

[Lucky Luciano]

7. Interesting thesi# topic. I wonder if I could get him to apply to our company!