My pick this week from Mariana Cook’s new book MATHEMATICIANS: An Outer View of the Inner World is a photographic portrait of Fields Medal winner Simon Donaldson.  His area of expertise is differential and algebraic geometry and teaches at the the Imperial College London.  Simon’s subtle smile makes it seem like he knows something that I don’t-and can prove it with those perplexing equations in the background!  Enjoy!

Another “DeSio Pick” from Mariana Cooks’s new book MATHEMATICIANS: An Outher View of the Inner World Princeton University mathematician JÁNOS KOLLÁR poses here amongst the ivy, probably somewhere on the Princeton campus.  This photograph captures what I envision many mathematicians to be–perfectly happy sitting alone with their thoughts, thinking of new equations (and in Janos’s case, algebraic geometry!)

Just getting in the spirit over the publication of Mariana Cook’s moving new book MATHEMATICIANS: An Outer View of the Inner World, a remarkable collection of 92 black-and-white photographic portraits of some of the most renowned mathematicians of our time.  Our friends at SEEDMagazine.com have posted a multimedia slideshow featuring text to accompany each portrait and 5 audio interviews with select mathematicians.  Great stuff!

I also wanted to post a few of my personal favorites from MATHEMATICIANS (which, by the way, would make a great gift for any budding math enthusiast!)  Today’s selection is a portrait of Shing-Tung Yau, Fields Medal winner and professor of mathematics at Harvard University.