Michael Lee Develin (born August 27, 1980) is an American

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

known for his work in

combinatorics Combinatorics is an area of mathematics primarily concerned with counting, both as a means and an end in obtaining results, and certain properties of finite structures. It is closely related to many other areas of mathematics and has many appl ...

and

discrete geometry Discrete geometry and combinatorial geometry are branches of geometry that study combinatorial properties and constructive methods of discrete geometric objects. Most questions in discrete geometry involve finite or discrete sets of basic geome ...

Early life

Mike Develin was born in

Hobart, Tasmania Hobart ( ; Nuennonne/Palawa kani: ''nipaluna'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Home to almost half of all Tasmanians, it is the least-populated Australian state capital city, and second-smalle ...

. He moved to the United States with his Korean mother, living in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. He attended

Stuyvesant High School Stuyvesant High School (pronounced ), commonly referred to among its students as Stuy (pronounced ), is a State school, public university-preparatory school, college-preparatory, Specialized high schools in New York City, specialized high school ...

, where he was captain of the math team, and entered

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

at the age of 16. At 22, he received his PhD from

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of Californi ...

, doing his dissertation on Topics in Discrete Geometry. He was awarded the 2003

American Institute of Mathematics The American Institute of Mathematics (AIM) is one of eight mathematical institutes in the United States, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). It was founded in 1994 by John Fry, co-founder of Fry's Electronics, and originally located ...

five-year fellowship.

Mathematics

Develin is a 2-time Putnam fellow in 1997 and 1998. He studied under advisor

Bernd Sturmfels Bernd Sturmfels (born March 28, 1962 in Kassel, West Germany) is a Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley and is a director of the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences in Leipzig sin ...

at UC-Berkeley, and has been noted for work on

Stanley's reciprocity theorem In combinatorial mathematics, Stanley's reciprocity theorem, named after MIT mathematician Richard P. Stanley, states that a certain functional equation is satisfied by the generating function of any rational cone (defined below) and the generating ...

and

tight span In metric geometry, the metric envelope or tight span of a metric space ''M'' is an injective metric space into which ''M'' can be embedded. In some sense it consists of all points "between" the points of ''M'', analogous to the convex hull of a ...

s. His 2004 paper, "Tropical Convexity", with Sturmfels, is regarded as one of the seminal papers of

tropical geometry In mathematics, tropical geometry is the study of polynomials and their geometric properties when addition is replaced with minimization and multiplication is replaced with ordinary addition: : x \oplus y = \min\, : x \otimes y = x + y. So f ...

, garnering over 300 citations to date.

Facebook

Develin worked on

data science Data science is an interdisciplinary field that uses scientific methods, processes, algorithms and systems to extract or extrapolate knowledge and insights from noisy, structured and unstructured data, and apply knowledge from data across a br ...

for Facebook and Instagram from 2011 to 2018. On January 23, 2014, Develin published
satirical note
on behalf of

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

's data science team, predicting the demise of

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

, in response to
research paper
by Princeton PhD candidates predicting the demise of Facebook.

Bridge

Develin started playing competitive bridge in 2005.

Wins

* Manfield Non-Life Master Pairs 2005 *

Grand National Teams The Grand National Teams (GNT) North American bridge championship is held at the summer American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) North American Bridge Championship (NABC). The Grand National Teams is a team knockout event. The event is broken into ...

Flight B 2007 * South American Junior Championships 2007 * Red Ribbon Pairs 2008 * 0-10,000 Fast Pairs 2022

Runner-up

North American Pairs The North American Pairs (NAP) is a set of annual North American championships for contested over two days at the spring American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) North American Bridge Championships (NABC). The events are restricted to pairs that have ...

Flight C 2006 * Mini-Spingold II 2007

Personal life

Develin was

naturalized Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the in ...

as an American citizen in 2010. Develin organized and maintain
SimBase
a simulated baseball league with fictitious players, whose inaugural members also included ''Jeopardy!'' champion Joon Pahk. Develin occasionally set up a "free advice" table near the San Francisco Ferry Building. He currently resides in

Kirkland, Washington Kirkland is a city in King County, Washington, United States. A suburb east of Seattle, its population was 92,175 in the 2020 U.S. census which made it the sixth largest city in the county and the twelfth largest in the state. The city's downto ...

References

External links

Mike's "Free Advice" tabling homepage
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Develin, Mike 1980 births American contract bridge players 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians Harvard University alumni Living people Stuyvesant High School alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni Mathematicians from New York (state) Australian emigrants to the United States Putnam Fellows