Equation Room

Arkady Alt, a Mathematician and an Educator

The fact that math had become not only my profession but rather a basis of my perception and thought process I owe to my mother who was determined to fight my negligent attitude when I was in the 5th and the 6th grade. She was relentless when it came to my precision and persistence when solving problems.
Also, as a teenager I got into reading books on mythology, which in turn led me to reading books on science fiction and in turn, astronomy , physics and then finally math.
At first mathematics was merely a tool to understand and explain physics and astronomy, to my classmates and friends, which were the primary interest of my high-school years (I also always felt the urge to share the excitement of newly acquired knowledge with others, which I suppose were the first indications of the inclination I have towards teaching). But very soon the world of mathematics overshadowed every single subject that was taught in school, including physics, and I came to realize that my calling is really in doing mathematics, and in particular, in teaching mathematics.
At first, my professional development went along the path of engineering and applied mathematics but lack of creative freedom soon got the best of me and I turned to the only profession that fulfilled me the most – teaching.  I began teaching professionally in 1981 at a local high-school in Odessa, Ukraine. During my time there I created a specialized course in mathematics where students were exposed to advanced mathematics at Olympiad and University level.  This course eventually evolved to a special two-year program with dual specialization in Computer Science and Mathematics. This was one of a kind high-school experiment at the time in the entire country. Many students from that course went on to participate and win Math competitions at the national level and many have moved on to become successful individuals in academia and beyond.

During my university years I was very drawn to Topology and Algebra, and shortly after graduation I came upon the book “Algebra” by Serge Lang which forever changed my perception in Mathematics. The entire knowledge base that I acquired in university suddenly obtained a certain depth, harmony, and I was finally able to connect group theory, number theory, topology and linear algebra. This book, in conjunction with concrete problems, inspired various works and publications during the last few years and several years after my studies, and many of my students followed my suggestion and read it from cover to cover.

After the end of the cold war, my family immigrated to Israel, where I continued teaching. There I taught children and adult students at various levels ranging from high-school to university and Olympiad level. Several of my students completed their high-school math requirements early and enrolled in university before graduating from high-school. Two of them won gold and silver medals at the International Math Olympiad in 1995,1996 and 1997.

It was also around that time that my attention switched to inequalities, a topic that interests me to this day.  In my mind, inequalities give an amazing opportunity to apply a wide range of techniques for their solution, and what I enjoy the most is finding solutions that don’t call for heavy math usage which allows me to share these problems with my students.

I now live in San Jose, California with my wife and two children, who are now adults, and who, I’m proud to say, were raised to know and love mathematics. I currently share my time between teaching and working on a book on inequalities that will contain many of the approaches and methodologies that I developed throughout the years. I’m also actively contributing to many current math magazines and publications, including:

You can find my published articles in the My Work page.
Besides mathematics my interests include philosophy, history, music and reading.