Columbian Mathematicians

(Fedrico Ardila - Image: QuietSisyphus)

Colombia may be best known for coffee, emeralds, and magical realism, but it has quietly produced some extraordinary mathematicians. Federico Ardila (combinatorics rockstar, MIT PhD, mentor to dozens of underrepresented students), Antanas Mockus (the mayor who used game theory to transform Bogotá), José Fernando Escobar, known for his work on the Yamabe problem, and many more. Proof that a country of 50 million people can punch way above its weight in pure and applied math.