Richard Gratwick

ChenChen Zha has written the following article as part of our series of Academic Interviews; featuring Richard Gratwick!

Early life and education

Throughout his time at primary and secondary school, Richard enjoyed studying many subjects, mathematics, however, was not his favorite. Back then he enjoyed others such as english and the sciences.

At University, having studied English literature during his A-levels and wishing to further explore the fields of the humanities, he worked on a joint mathematics and philosophy degree at the University of Oxford. Although the workload was high and the environment extremely intense, Richard found the experience very enjoyable as he was able to interact with some highly regarded academics. It was not until his final year there that he felt mathematics was becoming more interesting to him, and, as such, he was eager to learn more about this discipline; this lead to him deciding to continue on to a PhD.

While he was completing this, Richard had no intention of becoming an academic, but as it continued, he found himself becoming more and more interested in the research he was conducting. Each stage of his studies found him increasingly motivated to move further towards mathematics.

Teaching and Researching

In the past, pre-COVID, Richard enjoyed giving live lectures to enthusiastic students; sharing his mathematics in theatres was always a great experience for him. He was frustrated when, due to the pandemic, he did not have the opportunity to deliver in-person lectures, as online teaching doesn’t quite compare to being physically in a classroom with eager and energetic students.

The pandemic initially brought many challenges to him, but Richard decided to make the best of it, rather than let it weigh him down. To do this, he adapted to the benefits that online teaching provides, namely how it can help in the preparation of classes and the many new opportunities that it can offer. These included things like additional recorded videos that allowed him to explain some of the mathematics definitions in more detail than he could in a lecture; saving time to deliver additional mathematical concepts to his students.

Although Richard is now teaching-focussed, he enjoyed conducting research during his PhD, especially when it was focussed on the calculus of variations, these being minimization problems. During his time conducting research, he was motivated by various professors across the UK, finding their ideas to be extremely beneficial for his research.

Extracurricular

In his spare time Richard enjoys playing the violin, this being an activity that he developed an interest in from an extremely young age. On a regular school day, his class teacher asked every student to play the violin; Richard was told he had promise with the instrument, and he was encouraged to continue playing it. During the pandemic, he spent a good amount of time practicing, recording some videos, and uploading them online for people to enjoy. He spends a lot of time playing in public as part of an orchestra, an experience that he finds really enjoyable. Richard doesn’t think there is, necessarily, a close relationship between music and mathematics, however, he thinks that if there is a connection between the two, it would be that both fields attract hard-working individuals who are willing to put in a lot of effort into the, potentially, un-rewarding the first stages of their work, where practicing does not pay off immediately.

Tips for students

In order to commit to progressing down the Academic path, one would need to work hard and ensure that they have a genuine interest in mathematics. Furthermore, mathematics is not always rewarding, and may seem tedious in the early stage, however, if you commit to it you’re sure to find it gratifying and interesting.