I Am an Aggressive Optimist, Says Professor Jaroslav Nešetřil ****************************************************************************************** * ****************************************************************************************** Professor Jaroslav Nešetřil, director of the Institute for Theoretical Computer Science of University Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, is a world-renowned expert on combinatorics most popular teachers at the faculty. For over 30 years, he has been teaching the Combinat which is said to be a non-stop fun fest. We asked Professor Nešetřil about both mathematic As a kid, did you dream of becoming a scientist? I was born in Rakovník, where, like in many other small towns, there were many artists, bu mathematicians – those live in Prague and other major cities. In fact, at first I had want artist, but later I decided to study at Charles University and its Faculty of Mathematics always loved mathematics. Before I enrolled in my first year, I wanted to prepare over the to read the mathematical analysis textbook by Professor Jarník. I think I got stuck right A mathematical text is not written like a narrative and the information is delivered in a austere way, so it’s not easy to read a page of it – you have to think it through. I could on my own, but after a few lectures at the university, it was all clear to me. A huge influence was my grammar school professor František Lexa, with whom I took private Professor Lexa was a very distinguished gentleman, and looking back, the stories he used t might have sparked my interest in science. While drawing, I was listening to his stories a František Lexa, who was the founder of the Institute of Egyptology at Charles University. like a fairy-tale. I didn’t know what it was like to be a scientist, but the mysterious wo attract me. Can a mathematician get shortchanged? People would think that us mathematicians can work with numbers and that we multiply or di others. But university level mathematics is totally different from the high school one. Th biggest shocks our first-year students experience. You know, mathematics takes many forms; at the Faculty of Arts are taught something else that computer scientists. Students are su do math at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, but the foundation of higher mathematic construction, which is close to philosophy. We create a system of thought, which is very i depends on small details. But you know that from the bank – little things matter, like a p sign next to your account balance. This attention to detail will also help us counting our  Is mathematics really the symbol of purity, in the sense that you cannot cheat in it? Anybody can cheat, be they carpenters or lawyers, and mathematicians cheat and argue too. mathematicians is like any other. Mathematics might tend to involve less cheating, because mathematics is more difficult. Mathematics is on one hand very complex, but on the other h simple science, meaning that the criterion of truthfulness is very simple. Most questions real life can be answered by both yes and no, or something in between. In mathematics, the pretty much clear-cut. The basic criterion that work of mathematicians is judged by is the of the statements that the mathematician has come up with, and that doesn’t lend itself to What’s important in mathematics is what a scholar has created and not whether he’s good or mathematics has been produced by people who were ethically bad, but that holds in many oth well. Mathematician’s work can also be evaluated by aesthetic measures, such as elegance and bea mathematics is very close to music and aesthetics. The things that are famous in mathemati usually very elegant. Mathematics is not a field that creates overly complicated, hard-to- Mathematicians like it when things are presented in a simple way, its aesthetics is not so formal complexity, but in the elegance of interconnectedness. These days, many people are concerned about their future due to government cuts. How do yo your doctoral students, who are sought after both in the commercial sector and abroad? We are trying to provide good conditions for our doctoral students, so that they stay here other institutions try to have them for themselves. Of course, if our centre was shut down would lose jobs. We need money to pay them, but salary is not the only motivation. Our stu that they have more freedom here and that we will support their presentations abroad, if t themselves recognized in the international arena. Working in the centre is an elevator to it’s a very elite group. As a mathematician, you can get to the top very fast. If you look Charles University, mathematicians will be among the youngest ones. Here, you can become a age of thirty-five. Most of the time, you can’t do something like that in medicine. You’ve been working on a computer system of aesthetic evaluation. How far into the project That’s a dream of mine. I have a small team with which I’m trying to find whether there ar regularities that we could convert into the language of algorithms and feed them into the Right now, it’s at the very beginning and it’s still unclear whether it can be done. Aesth is based on a continuum, an image, a very complex object. What matters is a holistic appro information is in a way indivisible and we are trying to find out how to formalize it. Her important to find out what you do while looking at a painting, but at which moment you say Although aesthetic perception is individual, we are looking for general regularities accor process the image aesthetically just like the the gallery’s cleaning lady. Lately, people have been discussing the falling level of competence in mathematics among C students. The national graduation exam project that attempted to compare competence nation been criticised. Are students really getting worse? I am an aggressive optimist and I hate this kind of pessimistic talk. How many adults woul licence test without preparation? If 50 per cent students pass a graduation exam, not havi in case they are prepared, all of them will pass – that’s elementary logic. Maybe the math too easy. Do you know why we need mathematics? Mathematics is like salt. We have a beautif about it. Do you eat salt? You don’t. People will tell you they don’t use salt, but if the we would end up like in that fairy-tale. Salt is not a spice, it’s the essence. If kids do they will wander the world full of flashing digits without understanding them. They won’t understanding the laws of the world based on mathematics. Mathematics is the essence. As p country that is concerned with our future, we must decide what we want. In 2010, Professor Jaroslav Nešetřil received the Medal of Merit, 3rd Degree for for contr country in the field of science. He was also awarded the Neuron Award for his lifelong con research in the field of mathematics. He has given lectures and conducted research at many top universities and academic institutions. He has written over 350 scientific articles, h and director of the Centre of Discrete Mathematics, Theoretical Computer Science and Its A is also the director of the Institute for Theoretical Computer Science and the DIMATIA Cen of visual art, he has been collaborating with one of the most famous Czech contemporary pa Načeradský. P.K. Translation: Jaroslav Švelch