Interview with Irakli Patchkoria

Irakli Patchkoria is a lecturer at the University of Aberdeen, working in homotopy theory. In this interview, he speaks about math-tennis balance, shares his experience of moving from Georgia to Western Europe and admits taking part in illegal actions on university exams. Irakli's homepage: https://www.abdn.ac.uk/people/irakli.patchkoria Photo: Irakli's private photo collection 0:00 teaser 1:13 epic story of family math 6:21 father’s advice 10:25 don’t work too much 14:41 experience in collaborations 19:02 Georgians and assimilation 21:47 making new friends (hey, Zurich!) 25:47 cheating on exams 28:38 you will have ideas for papers 33:48 don’t be afraid of stars in math 38:16 partying hard 41:25 drinking with mathematicians 43:41 math and the meaning of life 46:22 please make jokes in talks 48:53 helping young mathematicians