Steven Strogatz

Mathematician, writer, Cornell professor. All cards on the table, face up, all the time.

[Thomas Lin @7homaslin]

Wow, what an exciting guest list for the upcoming season of @QuantaMagazine’s The Joy of Why podcast. Can’t wait to learn from @stevenstrogatz and @JannaLevin’s smart and engaging interviews. https://t.co/rlviH2p9zK

[Steven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz]

Photo credit on the lower one: @chrismichel. Unfortunately, the photographer's name for the upper one has been lost in the mists of time.

[Steven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz]

Going back for my 50th high school reunion this weekend @loomischaffee -- time flies!

[Steven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz]

@octonion I thought it would be right up your alley!

[Steven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz]

This terrific article by @sioroberts will help elevate the public discussion of AI in mathematics. The interview about the Leiden Declaration is especially helpful. https://t.co/u4SYxQVXZ2

[Steven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz]

A beautiful example of an "optimal stopping problem" – Feynman's restaurant problem – with a great backstory behind it. This is a fun, well written article, and a fun math problem too.

https://t.co/0Nng9KLDHa

[Steven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz]

@XhetriS Thank you! 🙏

[Steven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz]

@ATCarrMath Nice!

[prasun /prʌˈsun/ @p_r]

@stevenstrogatz @m_j_wiener > see his tweets below

I wasn't able to find the tweets without dinner digging. Should be easier to find by following backwards from this tweet

https://t.co/DRoCucENdH

[Craft Gallery @5min__crafts]

These ancient knot - tying methods

[Steven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz]

Update to the update, now in 2026:

[Steven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz]

Five years ago, I read a preprint that alleged an error in a classic study of the "secretary problem". That preprint itself contained a subtle flaw, which was pointed out here on Twitter. Now, partly with the help of AI, the story continues here --> https://t.co/lMGLQt8QAG

[Steven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz]

I’ve spent the morning reading this preprint: https://t.co/lMGLQt8QAG. It has a story behind it. A finance person named @MarcosCarreira does math for pleasure, inspired by @CutTheKnotMath. While playing with a classic problem, he finds something weird in a famous paper about it.

[Steven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz]

https://t.co/bNWHYif8rX

[Steven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz]

Update: My thread below now looks like a false alarm. @m_j_wiener spotted a flaw in Marcos’s preprint. (See his tweets below.) So the original paper of Gilbert and Mosteller seems correct after all. My bad. 🙄 Oh well... like I said yesterday, in math the truth is what matters.

[Steven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz]

Five years ago, I read a preprint that alleged an error in a classic study of the "secretary problem". That preprint itself contained a subtle flaw, which was pointed out here on Twitter. Now, partly with the help of AI, the story continues here --> https://t.co/lMGLQt8QAG

[Steven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz]

I’ve spent the morning reading this preprint: https://t.co/lMGLQt8QAG. It has a story behind it. A finance person named @MarcosCarreira does math for pleasure, inspired by @CutTheKnotMath. While playing with a classic problem, he finds something weird in a famous paper about it.

[Steven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz]

@mkoeris Okay, okay 😊

[dhuv.io @DhuviKarthikey1]

Not to be dramatic or anything but Strogatz’s Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos fundamentally changed how I look at dynamical systems.

[Steven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz]

@tvsepl Sorry to have been unclear. What I am showing here was a messy first draft of the letter. I then rewrote the letter neatly, but I don't have a copy of the clean letter I actually sent.

[Steven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz]

A book and a letter that changed my life. After I read The Geometry of Biological Time, I wrote to its author and asked if I could come work with him. His reply, scrawled in his characteristic magic marker, led to his becoming my most important mentor.

[Steven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz]

@ben_golub When I knew Erik, he was about 13 years old! We hung out quite a bit the two summers I worked with his dad

[Steven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz]

A book and a letter that changed my life. After I read The Geometry of Biological Time, I wrote to its author and asked if I could come work with him. His reply, scrawled in his characteristic magic marker, led to his becoming my most important mentor.

[Steven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz]

@JohnMeuser Nice!

[Steven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz]

@orr_shalit Thanks Orr!

[Steven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz]

My favorite book in high school was actually a four-volume set of books called "The World of Mathematics." My parents (neither of whom went to college) gave it to me as a present more than 50 years ago.