Comments on: 2008 Abel Prize

By: Guest

Guest — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 01:20:42 +0000

I really like Tits very much and I am not afraid to admit it.
But not that other Cox-Zucker Thompson.

By: John Baez

John Baez — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 00:50:25 +0000

I explained a bit more about what Thompson and Tits did in week263 of This Week’s Finds.

By: Jacob Freeze

Jacob Freeze — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 18:47:59 +0000

John: Tu ne peux pas t’imaginer à quel point M. Tits se fout de comment on gargouille son nom de famille ici.

By: John Armstrong

John Armstrong — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 14:39:57 +0000

Jacob, there’s a lot more than “Tits” to be hushed up. Three words: Cox-Zucker Theorem.

Worse, though, was when I ran through some very basic quantum cryptography stuff at a CTY summer camp a few years ago, and had to tell actual pre-teens (well, mostly teens) about “bras”. And you know what? When I acknowledged that they were going to giggle, they got it out in a few seconds and we moved on. No big deal.

Besides which, this is a man’s name we’re talking about. How completely rude of you to suggest we just go changing its pronunciation without asking him.

By: Jacob Freeze

Jacob Freeze — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 11:46:02 +0000

A concerted effort by all posters on ArsMathematica could probably sell the pronunciation as “teedz” and put a damper on the expectable pre-teen yuk-yukking.

By: John Armstrong

John Armstrong — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 12:32:54 +0000

When he came to Yale a few years back, everyone said “tits”. Yeah, just like that.

By: Chris Hillman

Chris Hillman — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 23:11:53 +0000

I’ve heard his name pronounced “teats”, but that could be wrong.

Chris Hillman

By: Guest

Guest — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 23:05:47 +0000

How do you pronounce Tits?

By: Haider

Haider — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 15:54:35 +0000

Group Theory gets this year’s Abel. Great!!!