Sad to hear that Raoul Bott passed away this week (via Peter Woit; see also Jaques and Luboš). Bott was one of the leading mathematicians of his time, but he was also an inspirational teacher and a warm human being. When we were grad students at Harvard, Ted Pyne and I would try to attend whatever class he was giving, even though they were invariably at 8:30 in the morning, a time that was probably chosen intentionally since they were always so popular. He had a joyful sense of humor, and was kind enough to help me out with some geometry questions relevant to a paper I was writing. A truly great man.
Update: Perhaps one story will give a flavor for Bott’s personality. In class one morning he was in the midst of explaining the Atiyah-Singer index theorem (one of the most important results in modern topology), when he paused and looked reflective. Then he said something like, “The first I heard of this kind of thing was at a party at Princeton. Just talking with one of those physicists, it may have been Wigner. He was explaining this idea, saying that something like this ought to be true. Unfortunately, I had had a few drinks, and I didn’t follow him so well. But Atiyah was standing next to me, and he was perfectly sober!” And he laughed at his own story with a sense of open delight.
Sad news indeed. I imagine many people who met Bott have an anecdote to tell, and here’s mine. By amazing coincidence he happened to be in town at the time of my thesis defense and my advisor talked him into coming along. He slept through most of it, but I fondly remember having a laugh with him before things got underway:
Bott: So, are you going to get drunk if you pass?
Me: Yes, for sure. And if I fail I’ll get even drunker…
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During the KITP program on Mathematical Structures in String Theory, Michael Atiyah and Is Singer invited Raoul to spend about two weeks visiting from Carlsbad (north of San Diego,) where he was living with his daughter. He was in very good spirits and actively participated in seminars.
http://www.kitp.ucsb.edu/directory/photos/details.php?namecode=BOTT_R00
Since Bott was too frail to travel extensively, Sir Michael arranged for Bott to be inducted into the Royal Society in a brief ceremony in the new courtyard. For photos, see
http://www.kitp.ucsb.edu/other/events/bott_induction.
I thought that Atiyah’s and Bott’s remarks were recorded, but I can’t find them.
I can hardly believe it: I was just recently joking around with Raoul when he was here in Santa Barbara, as Marty Einhorn mentioned. I got to know Bott during the 1998 Les Houches meeting (a very nice meeting by the way, see the book Quantum Field Theory: Perspective and Prospective.) I was his downstairs neighbor and every evening he would invite me up to his place for a drink (this is consistent with Sean’s and David’s stories) while we looked at the Alps. Naturally, I was reminded of the opening sentence of my quantum field theory textbook talking about the ephemeral nature of life. I wanted to also mention the Chinese proverb about life being a passing illusion but with the joking tone of the book I was already testing the limit of Princeton University Press. So anyway, you guys in theoretical physics, remember this proverb when you fight over credits and references.
Regarding Shawn’s thought provoking story, I might also add that the reviewer of my textbook for the American Mathematical Society remarked that “It is often deeper to know why something is true rather than to have a proof that it is true.” This is for you students and other overly mathematical young people to think about.
Bott was a magnificent mathematician with incredible charisma. I remember that he would light up a room like a movie star whenever he entered. People would hang on his every word in the Harvard common room, and they would seldom be dissappointed. He had this big, hearty laugh, and he was quick to reward a clever remark from a student with a pat on the back and a “very good, young man, very good!”
I too remember Bott’s 8:30am class that Sean and Ted attended. It was this wonderful tour of geometry and topology which never proceeded with the topics of a standard course, yet always managed to convey the important essence of the subject. It was almost too dazzling — it left one with the impression that discovering beautiful mathematics was a easy as an afternoon stroll in the park. For Bott always made each successive step in some mathematical development seem like the only reasonable and natural thing to do. I would leave his class feeling like if I just followed my nose and did what seemed the most natural, I would easily discover fantastic new theorems. Of course, for most of us, creating new mathematics turned out to be considerably harder than Bott had made it appear…
I will truly miss Raoul Bott. His deep thinking and gentle soul personified what it means to be a great mathemtician.