Two young mathematicians from the VUB will take to the DOCVILLE stage on Monday 23 March to pitch their research in three minutes to a broad audience. During the DOCVILLE Science Pitch, the international documentary festival in Leuven, Aida Abiad and Quinten Van Boxstael translate the beauty as well as the societal value of their abstract field into an accessible narrative. Aida: “We show where the public funding of science goes.”
Here you can find more information about their appearance at DOCVILLE.
Quinten Van Boxstael
“A proof almost plays out in your mind like a film”
How important is this pitch for your field and for the wider public?
“The pitch is a great opportunity to really put mathematics in the spotlight for once. It is a way to present the research of our research group, and my own work, to a broad audience. I find that important, because in the end we are funded with public money.
For my field – wavelet analysis and, more broadly, harmonic analysis – it is valuable to show how pure theory leads to concrete applications. Think of the restoration of artworks or image processing. Examples like these make it clear how fundamental research has an impact in the real world.”
When were you first drawn to your field?
“I became passionate about mathematics towards the end of primary school or the beginning of secondary school. I found it fascinating to understand the world by reducing it to quantitative principles.
A defining moment came when a classmate in the final year of primary school mentioned the Pythagorean theorem. I had never heard of it before. That evening I looked it up. What I found so beautiful was its universal character: through logical reasoning, you demonstrate something that holds true for all right-angled triangles.
For me, the beauty of mathematics lies in devising logically coherent proofs. It is a very visual process: a proof almost plays out in your mind like a film. You see the different steps in the reasoning appear.”
What is your dream as a scientist?
“I hope that my research makes an original contribution to the vast body of mathematical knowledge. And I want to inspire people to study mathematics — and perhaps even to become mathematicians themselves.”
Aida Abiad
“I love breaking down barriers in science”
How important is this pitch?
“Being selected for this pitch came as a big surprise. As mathematicians, we often find it difficult to make our subject accessible to a general audience. This is therefore the perfect opportunity to practise that skill and to make our research areas more visible.
Moreover, initiatives like this help connect scientists with the real world. We show where public funding for science goes and why that is valuable.”
What do you see as the beauty of mathematics?
“I happened to end up in this field by chance. During my master’s thesis, I worked on spectral graph theory, simply out of curiosity. At that time, one of the leading experts in the field came to my university in Barcelona to give a series of lectures. The timing was perfect, and since then I have continued working in mathematics.
What I particularly find beautiful about this area of research is the simplicity and power of the techniques and arguments used.”
What is your scientific dream?
“With my research, I want to contribute to solving important problems in other disciplines, such as quantum information theory and quantum physics. I enjoy breaking down barriers in science. Researchers often look at the same problems, but from different perspectives.
My personal dream is simply to keep doing science. I have always enjoyed studying, and academic life allows me to continue doing that indefinitely. I feel privileged to be able to spend so much of my time discovering new things.”