WHY John Urschel IS IMPORTANT!! (a thread)

Let's start off with some background. John Urschel was born in Winnipeg Canada, in 1991, making him only 29 years old. He moved to Buffalo, NY and eventually went to Penn State to play football and study mathematics.

While at Penn State he completed his bachelors degree in 3 years, and stayed to pursue his masters in order to keep playing football.

He was drafted to the NFL in 2014 to the Baltimore Ravens. He played in 40 total Games and started in 13 over a three year career.

In his second season in the NFL he enrolled in a PhD program at MIT for mathematics. Just to be clear, he was pursuing his PhD while playing professional football!!

In 2017 he retired to keep pursuing his PhD and to spend time with his family.

"I loved football, and this was one of my life's passions. But I know that math is my life's work."

John is important for many reasons, so let's get into some of them!

1. He was recognized for his work in both his fields.
While at Penn State he was awarded the William V. Campbell Trophy (regarded as the "Academic Heisman") and the Sullivan Award, given to the best athlete in the US. In addition, he was named one of Forbes 30 under 30 in 2017!

2. He is a role model for athletes who enjoy school, and an advocate for pursuing your passions. He constantly talks about how you can use math in football to your advantage!

3. He is also a role model for minority and under privileged kids who want, and have the talent to, pursue educations in STEM. But have not had the same opportunities as other children.

“It’s not that these universities don’t want to hire African American math professors...It’s the sad fact that we have brilliant young talent in this country being born into households where this talent is lost and is not being cultivated.”

4. He encourages people to change their views on math! So many people see it as tedious and draining subject to get through it school, but John aims to take down that stereotype.

5. He loves to share how using math can make the world a better place, by first understanding it.

"Mathematics is the language we use to describe the world we live in. Math is very much about something not just being a certain way, but why something is a certain way."

6. He has done some important work already in his field! In his first year at MIT, John had published 6 peer reviewed math papers. And as of 2020, has had 4 more published! His is in the fields of numerical analysis, graph theory, and data science/machine learning.

John Urschel is a great mathematician, and an even better role model to adults and children everywhere. He encourages people to challenge stereotypes, and go for their passions no matter how different they might seem at first!