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Nicholas Saunderson
I just discovered that there is a LucasionChair.org Web site, with this biography of Nicholas Saunderson
http://www.lucasianchair.org/18/saunderson.html
who is one of my heroes. He became blind as a baby but became a wizard at mathematics and, being one of the few people who really understood what Newton was talking about, taught optics at Cambridge, which had turned him down years earlier when he applied to be a student. He also invented his own accessible calculating device and boards for demonstrating geometrical shapes in two dimensions and geometrical forms in three dimensions (I really wish these boards were still produced by some company). Saunderson's fame was actually mostly as a teacher, since he provided such clear explanations of cutting edge mathematics that everyone came to his classes to find out what Newton was actually going on about. I love this idea of a blind person explaining light and form to a packed room of sighted people.
Btw, if you are wondering what the Lucasion Chair is, it is the chair of mathematics at Cambridge University, occupied in the past by Isaac Newton, in the present by Stephen Hawking and, at some point in the future, by Data.
http://www.lucasianchair.org/18/saunderson.html
who is one of my heroes. He became blind as a baby but became a wizard at mathematics and, being one of the few people who really understood what Newton was talking about, taught optics at Cambridge, which had turned him down years earlier when he applied to be a student. He also invented his own accessible calculating device and boards for demonstrating geometrical shapes in two dimensions and geometrical forms in three dimensions (I really wish these boards were still produced by some company). Saunderson's fame was actually mostly as a teacher, since he provided such clear explanations of cutting edge mathematics that everyone came to his classes to find out what Newton was actually going on about. I love this idea of a blind person explaining light and form to a packed room of sighted people.
Btw, if you are wondering what the Lucasion Chair is, it is the chair of mathematics at Cambridge University, occupied in the past by Isaac Newton, in the present by Stephen Hawking and, at some point in the future, by Data.
no subject
I can not imagine learning geometry without using visual or tactile or sculptural models. Yes, the souper mathematicians can ponder n-dimensional space whether sighted or blind, but to cut you off from that bedrock stuff is just. Eeeek! That's the steam coming out of my ears!
(Was your undergrad at MIT? I ask because I spent five years closely working with a totally blind woman who earned her BS in Math at MIT — in 1975 (6?))
no subject
No, I did my undergrad time at UMass Boston, which is where Mass Commission for the Blind sends all their consumers, sad to say, and no one on the MCB pays any attention to the complaints of the blind students because, obviously, blind kids are not reliable, just whiny, right?
You can see why I refer to MIT as my Hogwarts: it was completely opposite from my experiences at UMass Boston. Even the students were nice: guys often opened doors for me and offered to walk me to the bus stop and would give me directions, even if they were in the metric system. Geek guys are so sweet.