VISUALISING MATHEMATICS

I look at four-dimensional manifolds. They are something you can almost visualize, with three dimensions and another spatial dimension curving in complex ways. I have a friend, Thordis, who is a potter. She wants to make art that people can use in their everyday lives. She makes wonderful mugs that you hold, with fluid designs. I think of a manifold as an everyday object that I am studying and trying to understand. To me this is very satisfying.

-Dusa McDuff Professor of Mathematics
State University of New York at Stony Brook