The Story Collider

This week, in honor of Pi Day on March 14, we're presenting two stories from mathematicians. Part 1: After a reluctant start, mathematician Ken Ono makes an unexpected discovery. Part 2: Mathematician Piper Harron deals with harassment after standing up for diversity in math. Ken Ono is the Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Mathematics at Emory University. He is the Vice President of the American Mathematical Society, and he considered to be an expert in the theory of integer partitions and modular forms. His contributions include several monographs and over 160 research and popular articles in number theory, combinatorics and algebra. He received his Ph.D. from UCLA and has received many awards for his research in number theory, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Packard Fellowship and a Sloan Fellowship. He was awarded a Presidential Early Career Award for Science and Engineering (PECASE) by Bill Clinton in 2000 and he was named the National Science Foundation’s Distinguished Teaching Scholar in 2005. He se