Mathematicians helped win the Battle of the Atlantic.

I hate to admit it, but mathematicians aren't usually popular. Actors, athletes, singers, religious leaders, even some politicians are, but for mathematicians, it's much harder to become known and appreciated by the general public. However, there are exceptions.

French children in the early 20th century collected trading cards of celebrities of the time, among them Henri Poincaré. They came in boxes of Guérin-Boutron chocolates, and the great mathematician was card number 469. It's touching to imagine the anxious negotiations during school recess: "Do you have Poincaré? I'll give you Admiral Makaroff and two Kings of England for Poincaré!" It's difficult to conceive of this in our days of Neymar and Cristiano Ronaldo.

Other examples that come to mind are figures whose life trajectory was marked by tragedy. The brilliant Indian mathematician Ramanujan (1887-1920), protagonist of the film "The Man Who Knew Infinity," died at the age of 32 as a result of health problems that plagued him throughout his life and were closely linked to poverty.

Another is the American John Nash (1928-2015), mathematician, economist, pioneer of game theory, and celebrated for the widely circulated film "A Beautiful Mind." His remarkable research, the drama of madness, the incredible cure, and the tragic accident that caused his death and that of his wife—all compose a story beyond what fiction could have conceived.

At the time of the film's release, the newspaper "Corriere della Sera" asked an Italian colleague if mathematics could have contributed to Nash's madness, to which he replied that it could. When I questioned whether he truly believed this, the mathematician colleague responded: "Of course not. But the journalist believed it and would be disappointed if I answered otherwise."

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