转- Mathematical passion By Tim Groenendyk

limit-2010

It’s no secret that Professor Nalini Joshi is passionate about mathematics. “It’s a deep and abiding thing in my soul,” said Joshi, when asked about her addiction to solving equations. “It’s almost like I’m getting to see how the universe works, because things click into place at the deepest levels.”



When asked why Alan Turing Year is significant, Nalini Joshi responds “I have a kind of soft spot for Turing because not only was he a great mathematician but he was also an outsider.”

Joshi was born in Burma, where “apart from being the wrong ethnic background, we were also in the minority when we came to Australia.

“And I’m a woman in what is primarily a man’s world; the first female professor in the mathematical sciences at Sydney University.”

Joshi’s research centres around non-linear systems, with a particular emphasis on integrable systems - which have applications in many fields including fluid dynamics, particle physics and optics.

“The light that shines through a non-linear optical fibre can travel forever if the system is integrable. If not, other factors interfere with the light and you need devices to help transmit and amplify the signal.”

Basically, it’s the art of distinguishing between order and chaos on a mathematical level.

She acknowledges not everyone shares her appetite for mathematics and consequently another of her research interests involves promoting mathematics in higher education.

“Children get very, very excited by things they discover in maths, patterns in counting for example.”

“Somewhere along the way I think that excitement gets lost. What I’d like to do is find a way of engaging students where that sense of fun and love of discovery is still present in what they see in mathematics.”

Inspired by Joshi’s tweet – “Maths is in my heart” – Trixie Barretto, a University staff member, filmed a short movie about her to explore this idea.

推荐！！！----------->采访的视频链接：http://vimeo.com/33615260

文章来源：http://sydney.edu.au/research/spotlight/joshi.shtml

[ 本帖最后由 limit-2010 于 2012-3-6 18:28 编辑 ]

limit-2010

http://vimeo.com/33615260

视频不能嵌入？  

patrickzhu

楼主请翻译，我加分

limit-2010

原帖由 patrickzhu 于 2012-3-6 18:39 发表
楼主请翻译，我加分

终于有回帖的了 :)

我觉得那个采访很精彩，说说主要内容吧：
（背景内容：被采访者- Nalini Joshi，悉尼大学的第一名女数学教授。
采访者-Barretto, Trixie，悉尼大学的网站工作人员Website Content Officer，Faculty of Science，University of Sydney。

采访者解释此次采访的缘由：
There's a mathematician six floors above me where I work. I'd never had much to do with her, but I'd heard she'd had an unusual childhood in Burma, and grew up to become the first female professor of mathematics at the university where we both work. One day on Twitter she wrote, "Maths is in my heart," a sentiment both alien and amusing to me, being someone who's terrible with numbers. It stayed with me though, and later that afternoon I knocked on her door and asked if she'd tell me her story.
Many thanks to Nalini for her time.
）

内容：

Nalini Joshi在缅甸出生，并在那里度过了童年。
但是的缅甸政府的种族主义排斥除了缅甸裔之外的所有民族， 作为印度裔的她和她的家人也被排斥。
他的父亲是一名医生， 但是被政府强迫充军了。所以他们全家移民来到了澳大利亚。

她说她小时候很没有归属感， 因为在缅甸有种族排斥， 然后到了澳洲呢， 她还是和别人不一样的，她还记得刚来的时候自己的奇怪口音使同学发笑的情景。
Nalini把数学看做一个haven， 在这里她可以理解并解决很多很多问题，在现实生活中却不是这样。

她小时候的理想其实是当一名astronomer， 但是她学校的career advisor告诉她这可能不太现实。
然而她还是对天文学很感兴趣， 小时候会用盘子来模拟天体运动， 想知道为什么我们只能看见月球的一面（题外话：实际上一面不等于一半， 因为虽然不会转过来，但是还是有一点位置的改变的，如果没有记错应该是59%）。
在学校会问科学老师很多这方面的问题， 但是老师没能给她一个好的答案。

作为医生的父亲想让她也成为一名医生， 但是她并不这样想。 她在大学入学的时候，让人出乎意料地， 从medicine转到了science。

然后她说了一些专业的问题，我翻译不好，大部分读者也不会感兴趣

当被人问起:"为什么人们需要数学呢？ 比如收银员有机器就可以算账了。"   
“我希望人们充分利用自己的大脑， 在机器计算的同时也用人脑来算一下， 还可以知道有没有出错。”她说。
在火车上我们可以看到很多人做数独， 其实这就是数学呀。

Nalini认为数学和音乐有很多共通之处， 例如规律， 还有情感的表达。
数学不是一个怪物， 她和你我一样human，和音乐一样emotional， 一旦你进入了那扇门，  就会体会到这些。
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看译文的感觉和看视频的效果相差不少， 主要是翻译得差， 视频拍得好， 所以还是强烈建议看原视频： http://vimeo.com/33615260

[ 本帖最后由 limit-2010 于 2012-3-6 19:34 编辑 ]