Wolfram Research is saddened to announce the passing of Jerry Uhl, Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at the University of Illinois. Jerry's scholarly contributions to the field of mathematics are numerous, but we will remember him best for his passion for education and mathematics reform, which led him to the development of the Calculus&Mathematica program that is still used today by progressive math programs. For his support of Mathematica and his innovation in math education, Wolfram Research presented Jerry with the first Mathematica Pioneer Award in 2008. The following video was made for the presentation of that award.

In Winning Ways for Your Mathematical Plays, noted mathematicians Elwyn Berlekamp, John Conway, and Richard Guy have this dedication: "To Martin Gardner, who has brought more mathematics to more millions than anyone else." Martin Gardner passed away on May 22, 2010, and I talk about my own introduction to his work at the Wolfram|Alpha Blog. On May 21, I was asked for the best book about math for a young adult. I suggested Martin Gardner's Mathematical Games (CD-ROM), which contains his 15-book canon. In my opinion, it's still the best book series for sparking an interest in mathematics. In a way, Wolfram Research has been trying to beat Martin in the noble goal of bringing math and science to the millions. We've partnered with CBS/Paramount for the NUMB3RS TV show, our CEO Stephen Wolfram wrote A New Kind of Science, co-founder Theodore Gray made what I think is the best periodic table in the world, and we built MathWorld, the most comprehensive math encyclopedia on the web.

Back on May 27, we wrote a remembrance of Martin Gardner. He would have been 96 on October 21, which has prompted the worldwide event, Celebration of Mind. If you look at the event map, you'll see the locations for over 50 events. Some of the 30 event locations in the United States include: Stanford University, to which Martin donated all his mathematical correspondence; MAA headquarters in Washington, DC; Magic Castle, in Los Angeles; and Fort Lauderdale, with an event hosted by James Randi. Here is an ambigram with the event logo, which was designed by Scott Kim. The logo is rotationally symmetric.

Today (June 23, 2010) would have been Alan Turing's 98th birthday---if he had not died in 1954, at the age of 41. I never met Alan Turing; he died five years before I was born. But somehow I feel I know him well---not least because many of my own intellectual interests have had an almost eerie parallel with his. And by a strange coincidence, Mathematica's "birthday" (June 23, 1988) is aligned with Turing's---so that today is also the celebration of Mathematica's 22nd birthday. I think I first heard about Alan Turing when I was about eleven years old, right around the time I saw my first computer. Through a friend of my parents, I had gotten to know a rather eccentric old classics professor, who, knowing my interest in science, mentioned to me this "bright young chap named Turing" whom he had known during the Second World War. One of the classics professor's eccentricities was that whenever the word "ultra" came up in a Latin text, he would repeat it over and over again, and make comments about remembering it. At the time, I didn't think much of it---though I did remember it. Only years later did I realize that "Ultra" was the codename for the British cryptanalysis effort at Bletchley Park during the war. In a very British way, the classics professor wanted to tell me something about it, without breaking any secrets. And presumably it was at Bletchley Park that he had met Alan Turing. A few years later, I heard scattered mentions of Alan Turing in various British academic circles. I heard that he had done mysterious but important work in breaking German codes during the war. And I heard it claimed that after the war, he had been killed by British Intelligence. At the time, at least some of the British wartime cryptography effort was still secret, including Turing's role in it. I wondered why. So I asked around, and started hearing that perhaps Turing had invented codes that were still being used. I'm not sure where I next encountered Alan Turing. Probably it was when I decided to learn all I could about computer science---and saw all sorts of mentions of "Turing machines”. But I have a distinct memory from around 1979 of going to the library, and finding a little book about Alan Turing written by his mother, Sara Turing. And gradually I built up quite a picture of Alan Turing and his work. And over the 30 years that have followed, I have kept on running into Alan Turing, often in unexpected places.