Further Findings

Michael Starbird

As part of Further Findings’ Getting Started series, Michael Starbird, a mathematics professor at The University of Texas at Austin, explains how he got involved with numbers.

“I was brought up in southern California and my father taught mathematics, physics and astronomy at a community college and he would bring mathematical and physics problems to the dinner table,” he said. “My brother and I talked about them.

“Mathematics was just a part of daily life. In fact, I often look back
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“Murder and math. What could be better?”

That’s how Michael Starbird, professor of mathematics, describes his appreciation for the CBS show “Numb3rs.”

Starbird and “Numb3rs” (on CBS at 9 p.m. Fridays) came together at a recent Science Study Break, a series that connects the science in movies and television shows to real science. Past lectures include anthropologist John Kappelman on “Bones” and biologist David Hillis on “CSI.”

“Numb3rs,” in its fifth season, chronicles the adventures of Charles Eppes, a math genius and professor
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Luis Caffarelli

Luis Caffarelli has become the second mathematician from The University of Texas at Austin in two years to receive a Leroy P. Steele Prize from the American Mathematical Society (AMS). The Steele Prize is considered one of the top three prizes in mathematics.

The Steele Prize is actually three awards. Caffarelli’s was for lifetime achievement, the award that John Tate, a math professor, won in 1995. The university’s Karen Uhlenbeck received the prize for seminal research contribution in 2007.

The other Steele Prize
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