Audio Edition: The Quietest Mathematician Has Always Been Worth Listening To
Summary
This Quanta Magazine episode profiles John Pardon, a 2026 Fields Medal winner recognized for his ability to connect disparate areas of mathematics. The story details his early prodigious achievements, including solving a knot theory conjecture as an undergraduate and resolving the virtual cycle problem in symplectic geometry during his PhD. It further explores his recent proof of the MNOP conjecture, which established a deep equivalence between two methods of counting curves on Calabi-Yau manifolds.
Topics discussed
Introduction to 2026 Fields Medal winners
Promotion for The Joy of Why podcast
Early anecdote: Solving a topology problem as an undergrad
Graduation speech and Pardon's originality
Colleagues' perspectives on Pardon's impact
Pardon's personality, hobbies, and daily life
Students describe Pardon's quiet communication style
Comparing Pardon to generational sports talents
Background and solving a high school open problem
Explaining knot theory and the concept of distortion
Disproving Gromov's conjecture on torus knots
Early career at Stanford and contemplative habits
Introduction to symplectic geometry and phase space
Doctoral dissertation on the virtual cycle problem
Impact on symplectic geometry foundations
Collaborations with Ganatra and Shende
Move to Stony Brook and the MNOP conjecture
Curve counting and Kalabi-Yau manifolds in physics
The MNOP conjecture and two types of invariants
Pardon's proof of the MNOP conjecture
New book on symplectic geometry foundations
Credits and funding disclosure
Listen ad-free on Castria