I read an entry on this board saying there are dozens of math champions are working for DE Shaw. So, I suppose they merely work for money? What kind of advanced models they've developed, or they just sit there to make that company look good with shining medals? If they really that smart, why don't they use their talents to solve even one of the Millennium problems, which worth $1million dollars?

Why spend years cracking a problem worth a mere $1 million when you can earn several times that each year if you're really good at a place like Shaw?

QuoteOriginally posted by: jd1123Why spend years cracking a problem worth a mere $1 million when you can earn several times that each year if you're really good at a place like Shaw?Give me the name of one person who both won a math championship, whatever that is, and made two million dollars in two different years working for Shaw.

hell, I'd pay good money for the list Farmer is asking for.

nuaanjit,it took Perelman on the order of 10 years to prove Poincare conjecture, for which he could (but refuses to) get 1,000,000, so that's about 100K a year...and he was still lucky (although probably extremely smart) to solve it (Hamilton was trying to crack it for much longer, not to mention the generations before him)...I guess you never solved a single open mathematical problem or studied real mathematics when you say what you say, odrinary mortals can't even grasp the complexity of the millennium problems (I am an ordinary mortal...).

QuoteOriginally posted by: DCFChell, I'd pay good money for the list Farmer is asking for.I doubt they are very shy about naming champions who work there. Prob just do a web search, math champion shaw.I don't think many people make much money at Shaw. I am sure if one made a million dollars in bonus, it would be shouted from the mountaintops.

There is a name worth mentioning: James Simons.Won the Veblen Prize (world's top prize in Geometry) and invented Chern-Simons theory. He hasn't, however, been very profitable: he only earned 1.5 BILLION USD in 2005 and 1.7 BILLION in 2006. You should work harder this year Jim.

Thanks for the name Topologist.Now we are talking. We have at least one person worth to admire now, both talented and rich.

Speaking of farmer's list, I know a managing director at DE Shaw who is an international olimpead winner. I am pretty sure that a managing director makes more than a million. As to the subject of this thread, the subject is extreamly lame! LAME!!!

QuoteOriginally posted by: nuaanjitThanks for the name Topologist.Now we are talking. We have at least one person worth to admire now, both talented and rich.first time you are hearing the name of Simons?? Long way to go

Here is my point:If Einstein should have left Princeton to work for Deutsche bank, or Feynman should have gone to GS or DE Shaw, they could have been billionaires are well. But we won't have relativity or QED nowadays, or the science evolution will be much delayed.The subject is really about mortal value, not the number on the paper. Although I understand we are all just making livings in different ways, and I respect that.

First of all, your English is a little confusing. You should work on improving it. Second, the "geniuses" that work in DE Shaw are not the same kind of genuisses as Feyman or Einstein were. Why do you think that winning an olimpead puts you into the legue of genuisses? I knew a bunch of very very bright guys, when I was undergrad, who were winners of all kinds of olimpeads, but by the end of the second year got their girlfriends pregnant, quit school and.... and I don't know where they are right now. I have all kinds of stories. The truth is the modern science is not loosing anything by olimpead winners deciding to work for DE Shaw.

QuoteOriginally posted by: YuraI know a managing director at DE Shaw who is an international olimpead winnerNot very likely. He probably won a medal at the Olympiad.QuoteCurrent employees include winners of more than 20 International Math Olympiad medalsBut he did not win the Olympiad, nor is he any kind of champion.QuoteThe first International Mathematical Olympiad was held in Romania in 1959. Since then it has been held every year except 1980. About 90 countries send teams of (at most) six students each (plus one team leader, one deputy leader and observers). Teams are not officially recognized - all scores are given only to individual contestants. The total number of awarded medals is as close as possible to but not more than half the total number of contestants. The rule that at most half the contestants win a medal is sometimes broken if adhering to it causes the number of medals to deviate too much from half the number of contestants. This last happened in 2006 when the choice was to give either 188 or 253 of the 498 contestants a medal.3 students * 40 countries * 40 years *.5 = 2400 medal winners, and 0 champions. If 65 people got the exact same score, how hard can it be? Probably 40 people got the maximum score. I am guessing there are at least 5,000 medals out there, and 0 champions. If kids didn't win automatically, nobody would pay to send them, and the promoters would be out of business. Neither Shaw, nor the IMO, can make a living off geniuses. Next?

farmer, I've noticed that you like being a smartass Everybody knows that there are no winners to these olimpeads, and by "a winner of international olimpead", of course, I meant a Gold Medal. Although, I do agree that once you got to the International Olimpead it's not that diffucult to get a medal, I disagree that it's not a big deal (you write "how hard can it be"). Maybe it's not a big deal if you're from Zimbabwe, but if you're, say, from Russia, it's very very difficult to get the right to go to the international math olimpead.

QuoteOriginally posted by: nuaanjitIf Einstein should have left Princeton to work for Deutsche bank, or Feynman should have gone to GS or DE Shaw, they could have been billionaires are well. But we won't have relativity or QED nowadays, or the science evolution will be much delayed.Einstein did his best work while he was working as a patent clerk in the Swiss Patent office. He really didn't get much done at IAS.