Opinion 157: Ninety is the New Forty for Quite a Few Mathematicians

By Doron Zeilberger

Written: Feb. 7, 2017

G.H. Hardy famously (and stupidly!) said that `Mathematics is a young man's game'. I don't know how he defined young, but if you define it as `under one hundred years old', then he may have been right.

Here are some examples, of people that I know personally, in decreasing age

Richard Guy (b. Sept. 30, 1916), who published two papers in 2015 (and he probably has a few submitted and in preparation)
My late colleague, the great Israel Gelfand (1913-2009), who published until he was 93-years-old.
Freeman Dyson (b. Dec. 15, 1923), who coauthored a seminal paper in Game Theory a few years ago, and is still going strong.
The amazing, ex-prodigy, Penn's Murray Gerstenhaber (b. June 5, 1927), who published one paper in 2016 and one in 2015.
Adriano Garsia (b. Aug. 20, 1928), who keeps producing great research, and brilliant new PhDs.
Aviezri Fraenkel (b. June 7, 1929), who published a paper in 2016, two papers in 2015 (and a few submitted)
My esteemed colleague, at Rutgers, the `youngster', Joel Lebowtiz (b. May 10, 1930), who according to MathSciNet published four papers in 2016.

I am sure that there exist many other examples. I know quite a few female mathematicians in their late seventies that are still publishing, but if you know of any one over 85-years-old who published a paper last year, I'll be glad to add her to the above very partial list.

Added Feb. 23, 2017: Martin Andler kindly informed me that Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat, born in 1923, has two 2015 entries in Mathscinet, and several in 2011.

Added April 18, 2017: Read interesting comments by Igor Pak.

Added June 17, 2019: Igor Rivin pointed out that 92-year-old Joan Birman has a paper published in 2016.

Opinions of Doron Zeilberger