Lek-Heng Lim longs for a renaissance that would reunite pure and applied mathematics. He points out that the distinction, which in modern math appears to be elemental, is in fact recent. “This break between pure and applied math happened in the last 80 years,” Lim said. “I would argue for a return to the old days.” Lim’s research moves us closer to this reunion. He studies machine learning and...
