Research guides: CO 480 Research: Home

Finding Inspiration

Omni, the library catalogue
Use the catalogue's advanced search to help you find mathematicians.

Using the advanced search interface, change the field to 'subject' and type 'mathematician*' into the search box. The asterisk (*) will find mathematician or mathematicians. It may also be helpful to change the results to only show books.

A note about the 'search for' options:

'Waterloo library' shows print and electronic items in the Waterloo system.
'Waterloo online resources' shows only electronic items in the Waterloo system.
'Waterloo + Laurier + Guelph' includes Laurier's and Guelph's print collection. You can request items from these libraries and usually receive them in a few days.
'Waterloo + Omni Libraries' includes the print collections from 13 other universities in Ontario. You can request items from these libraries and usually receive them in a week or two.

The catalogue's advanced search interface

Broad searches, like the one above, are not always the best for finding underrepresented voices. Instead a search like this might be more helpful:

advanced search in the catalogue. black OR indigenous OR women OR "African American" OR woman OR "African Canadian" are searched in the title field and mathematician* is searched in the any field.

Encyclopedias can provide useful overviews on mathematicians and mathematical concepts. Please note that these are not considered peer reviewed research sources. However, they can be used as reliable starting points for selecting a mathematician and finding related references.

There are a number of websites you can browse to help you select a mathematician, including:

Celebratio Mathematica
Contains biographic and bibliographic information of selected scientists. These can include unpublished documents, letters, interviews, commentaries, photographs, testimonials, and varied memorabilia. From Mathematical Science Publishers.
MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
Includes biographies of mathematicians with essays and supporting materials. From the School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St Andrews.
Mathematics Genealogy Project
Attempts to list all mathematicians, including their degree information, dissertation title, and advisors. From the Department of Mathematics, North Dakota State University.
Wikipedia

Please note that these are not scholarly sources of information. However, they can provide an indication of how much research relating to an individual is out there. You can also mine their references for material published in books, journals, and conferences.

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