Mathematician facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Mathematician

Euclid (holding calipers), Greek mathematician, known as the "Father of Geometry"
Occupation
Occupation type	Academic
Description
Competencies	Mathematics, analytical skills and critical thinking skills
Education required	Doctoral degree, occasionally master's degree
Fields of employment	universities, private corporations, financial industry, government
Related jobs	statistician, actuary

A mathematician is someone who studies mathematics, either as a hobby or as a job. Many mathematicians are math professors at universities. Euclid, Ramanujan, Sir Isaac Newton are some of the most famous early mathematicians.

Mathematics is concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change.

Activities

Archimedes

Leonhard Euler

Sofja Wassiljewna Kowalewskaja, the first woman to hold a professorship for mathematics.

Applied mathematics

Mathematicians involved with solving problems with applications in real life are called applied mathematicians. Applied mathematicians are mathematical scientists who, with their specialized knowledge and professional methodology, approach many of the imposing problems presented in related scientific fields. With professional focus on a wide variety of problems, theoretical systems, and localized constructs, applied mathematicians work regularly in the study and formulation of mathematical models. Mathematicians and applied mathematicians are considered to be two of the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) careers.

The discipline of applied mathematics concerns itself with mathematical methods that are typically used in science, engineering, business, and industry; thus, "applied mathematics" is a mathematical science with specialized knowledge. The term "applied mathematics" also describes the professional specialty in which mathematicians work on problems, often concrete but sometimes abstract. As professionals focused on problem solving, applied mathematicians look into the formulation, study, and use of mathematical models in science, engineering, business, and other areas of mathematical practice.

Abstract mathematics

Pure mathematics is mathematics that studies entirely abstract concepts. From the eighteenth century onwards, this was a recognized category of mathematical activity, sometimes characterized as speculative mathematics, and at variance with the trend towards meeting the needs of navigation, astronomy, physics, economics, engineering, and other applications.

Another insightful view put forth is that pure mathematics is not necessarily applied mathematics: it is possible to study abstract entities with respect to their intrinsic nature, and not be concerned with how they manifest in the real world. Even though the pure and applied viewpoints are distinct philosophical positions, in practice there is much overlap in the activity of pure and applied mathematicians.

To develop accurate models for describing the real world, many applied mathematicians draw on tools and techniques that are often considered to be "pure" mathematics. On the other hand, many pure mathematicians draw on natural and social phenomena as inspiration for their abstract research.

Mathematics teaching

Many professional mathematicians also engage in the teaching of mathematics. Duties may include:

• teaching university mathematics courses;
• supervising undergraduate and graduate research; and
• serving on academic committees.

Consulting

Many careers in mathematics outside of universities involve consulting. For instance, actuaries assemble and analyze data to estimate the probability and likely cost of the occurrence of an event such as death, sickness, injury, disability, or loss of property. Actuaries also address financial questions, including those involving the level of pension contributions required to produce a certain retirement income and the way in which a company should invest resources to maximize its return on investments in light of potential risk. Using their broad knowledge, actuaries help design and price insurance policies, pension plans, and other financial strategies in a manner which will help ensure that the plans are maintained on a sound financial basis.

As another example, mathematical finance will derive and extend the mathematical or numerical models without necessarily establishing a link to financial theory, taking observed market prices as input. Mathematical consistency is required, not compatibility with economic theory. Thus, for example, while a financial economist might study the structural reasons why a company may have a certain share price, a financial mathematician may take the share price as a given, and attempt to use stochastic calculus to obtain the corresponding value of derivatives of the stock.

Occupations

According to the Dictionary of Occupational Titles occupations in mathematics include the following.

• Mathematician
• Operations-Research Analyst
• Mathematical Statistician
• Mathematical Technician
• Actuary
• Applied Statistician
• Weight Analyst

Mathematical societies and foundations

Images for kids

• 

  Emmy Noether, mathematical theorist and teacher

• 

  In 1938 in the United States, mathematicians were desired as teachers, calculating machine operators, mechanical engineers, accounting auditor bookkeepers, and actuary statisticians

See also

In Spanish: Matemático para niños