Key Conversations with Phi Beta Kappa - Math Professor Ken Ono Is Connecting Swimming, Ramanujan, and Hollywood

Math Professor Ken Ono Is Connecting Swimming, Ramanujan, and Hollywood

05/28/20 • 24 min

He got a call to consult on the Hollywood film The Man Who Knew Infinity, starring Jeremy Irons and Dev Patel. The director was so impressed with his knowledge of the life and work of Indian math prodigy Ramanujan that he invited him on set. By the time the credits rolled, he was an associate producer on the movie. But Ono’s own life would make a fascinating big-screen story: a high school dropout pushes away from an intellectually gifted family and his father’s academic legacy, only to be given a chance at college and advanced studies in the very field he avoided for so long.

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