Christopher Budd (mathematician)

"This technology is used all the time now. If you have a CD player, then you're using that technology. ...[O]n the CD you put lots of extra information to make sure that when you play the CD it doesn't get distorted or destroyed. [Error correcting codes... store the numbers... and other data... such that any errors can not only be detected but corrected. They work by asking extra questions to make the answers as different as possible so we can still tell the right answer even if it has mistakes in it.] This technology... was invented by a marvelous American mathematician working at Bell Labs... Hamming, one of my heroes, a fantastic mathematician, a brillian inventor of... error correcting codes [using... ()], which he used to send all the information... essentially he created the mobile phone and the internet technology which could which could send the information around... But... it goes back even further... to a branch of math called Galois theory... invented at the end of the nineteenth century by a guy aged 19, and Galois's stuff is heavily used in modern technology now."

"So this is error correcting, which brings us right up to date with the information age, sending huge amounts of information around the world, sending stuff around with Google. Absolutely fantastic."

"Mathematicians have changed the world."

"What is often called pure math, which is maths developed for interests only, suddenly finds applications in remarkable ways and leads to whole new technologies. Google was invented by two mathematicians who are now very wealthy. Let that be a lesson to us all."

"[T]here are incredibly exciting times ahead and the great thing is that there is going to be young people driving us forward, and I can't wait to see where we get to next."

"For the last 20+ years, Dr. Budd has run a module at the University of Bath designed to help undergraduate students communicate mathematics to broader audiences while providing mathematics masterclasses to young aspiring mathematicians at the Royal Institution."

"[E]ven in his academic work it is clear that Budd enjoys breaking out of the university bubble and getting his hands dirty in the real world, working on problems that he hopes can "benefit society directly"."