Mind and Matter

March 1, 2019
How many other professional football players share John Urschel's obsession with the arcane formulas of vector calculus? With the authorial assistance of Louisa Thomas, Urschel recounts the unusual life course that made him simultaneously an offensive lineman for the Baltimore Ravens and a PhD candidate in mathematics at MIT. To explain this exceptional trajectory, Urschel revisits formative moments in his childhood: joining his mother at the kitchen table to complete sudoku puzzles; accompanying his father to the office, where he first sees an unforgettable photograph of his dad in a university football uniform. Readers then follow Urschel through the academic and athletic rigors that expose the sharp contrasts and surprising connections between the two passions that shape his life?one taxing his brain with proofs and calculations, the other toughening his muscles with gridiron competition. The candid narrative conveys both the intellectual excitement of mathematically formulating the irregularities of an asteroid's orbit and the physical trauma of sustaining a concussion in blocking a blitzing linebacker. A piquantly improbable memoir.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)

December 1, 2018

Passionate about puzzles, Urschel was auditing college-level calculus courses by age 13. But he also fell for the thrill of football, winning Sullivan and Campbell honors and eventually becoming a Baltimore Ravens defensive lineman. Now off the turf, mathematician Urschel is a PhD candidate at MIT. As he says, "So often, people want to divide the world into two. Matter and energy. Wave and particle. Athlete and mathematician. Why can't something be both?" I'm cheerleading here.

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