Living proof: A conversation with Sarah Hart

Sarah Hart is a mathematician who is interested, not just in the maths itself, but also its connections to other areas of culture and art. She's done an amazing number of things throughout her career — from research in pure mathematics and heading up a maths department, to being the first woman Gresham Professor of Geometry and President of the British Society for the History of Mathematics. 

Sarah has also written a fascinating book, called Once upon a time: The wondrous connections between mathematics and literature, and she gave a talk at this year's Cambridge Festival, with the intriguing title Life in Lilliput – The Mathematics of Fictional Realms. The talk was the contribution to the Festival of the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences (INI). Sarah also participates in the Modern History of Mathematics research programme that is currently taking place at the INI.

In this episode of Living proof, produced in collaboration with the INI, Sarah tells us about the many things she has done and how they all fit together, and gives some advice for budding mathematicians of all ages: keep pursuing all the things you love doing, and one day it may turn out that they all fit together.

To find out more about some of the things mentioned in this podcast see the following links:

• Sarah Hart: Once upon a prime — In this episode of our Maths on the Move podcast Sarah talks about her book and the connections between maths and literature.
• Maths in three minutes: Groups — This article gives a brief introduction to Sarah's research area.
• Life in Lilliput – The Mathematics of Fictional Realms — Click this link to watch a recording of Sarah's Cambridge Festival talk at the INI.
• Sarah Hart at Gresham College — Click this link to watch Sarah's Gresham College public lectures.

This podcast forms part of our collaboration with the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences (INI) – you can find all the content from the collaboration here.

The INI is an international research centre and our neighbour here on the University of Cambridge's maths campus. It attracts leading mathematical scientists from all over the world, and is open to all. Visit www.newton.ac.uk to find out more.