0:15 from Hungary to Los Alamos
3:00 shock limits: the role of collaboration
4:22 interaction of solitons: discovered by numerical means
10:35 genesis of Fourier integral operators
12:00 Ralph Phillips, scattering theory
14:45 Riemann Hypothesis
15:40 beauty vs. ugliness in math.
16:15 doesn't get angry easily
17:32 G.H. Hardy, his Apology, Aston's response
18:42 pure math. as a branch of applied math. (Joe Keller)
20:00 pure math. having applied uses inevitable?
22:13 math. has a mysterious unity
22:40 high-speed computing
25:12 emergence of new algorithms in linear algebra
26:08 high-speed due to computer hardware and to improved algorithms
26:30 takes mathematicians to create clever algorithms
27:20 use of theory of non-linear PDEs in oil exploration
27:43 inverse problems
28:44 mathematics education in Hungary
30:00 problem-solving as the Royal road to stimulate talent
30:27 need to branch out also
30:39 Pólya
31:20 tradition in Hungary to find the simplest proofs, Erdős' Book
32:00 Hahn-Banach theorem is out of The Book
32:52 culture of excellence in Hungarian math.
33:34 book by John Lukacs
34:46 Influence of Julius König
36:02 Fejér (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lip%C3%B3t_Fej%C3%A9r)
37:18 Ulam
37:56 Atomic bombs, war in the Pacific
39:33 Innoculation effect of atomic bombs
39:59 Ulam on how blackboard scribbles changing world history
40:18 Ulam as an ideas man
41:15 The Courant Institute
41:45 Courant's personality, suspicion of specialization
44:14 Collaborating, Vera John-Steiner book
45:20 Personal work style
45:45 Phillips thought Lax lazy
46:15 Sudden inspiration
46:50 Stories from Schottke, Hilbert ("my very bad memory")
48:05 Has good memory
48:15 Important decisions for large organizations
49:00 Director of The Courant Institute
49:35 Blocked formation of department of Informatics
50:30 Successful hires
50:55 Failures: standard of hiring (in computer science)
51:52 National Science Board, policy-making as nodding yes
52:30 The Lax Panel, supercomputers
54:25 Paraphrasing Emerson: nothing can resist the force of an idea, 10 years overdue
54:50 Teaching calculus
55:20 Calculus book enormously unsuccessful despite good ideas
56:00 Dreams of rewriting book
56:10 The calculus reform movement, doubts
56:28 The books are too thick
57:00 Uniform continuity vs. continuity at a point
57:32 Math. community enormously conservative
57:45 Applications as subsidiary, should be featured
58:20 Looking for good collaborator
58:40 Work in the pipeline
59:20 What are the real numbers (not Dedekind's so much)
1:00:00 Other interests (Hungarian, English poetry; tennis; reading)
1:01:15 Writing obituaries, haikus
Interview in written. Notices of the American Mathematical Society:
www.ams.org/notices/200602/comm-lax.pdf
The Abel Prize Interview 2005 with Peter D. Lax.
Interviewed by mathematicians Martin Raussen og Christian Skau.
Produced by UniMedia.