John Milnor

At the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) 2014 we had the great privilege to meet a true legend of mathematics: John Milnor. Milnor is famous not only for his work in mathematics, but also for his writing which has inspired generations of mathematicians. He has won three major mathematical prizes: the Fields Medal in 1962, Wolf prize in mathematics in 1989 and the Abel Prize in 2011. We've recorded a press conference Milnor gave at the ICM, telling journalists why doing maths is like being Lewis Carroll's Red Queen and what it's like doing maths at the formidable age of 84.

If you prefer reading to listening, see the transcript of this podcast. To find out more about Milnor's work in knot theory and on exotic spheres, which is mentioned in this podcast, see this article.