What fascinated Nickel and Noll was the notion that primes are a sort of DNA of all numbers. The two high school students were surprised that no pattern has yet been found to predict the highest prime ever discovered. They set out to find that number. After 2,000 hours of work and 44 computer tests, they found the elusive number which was confirmed by theoretical mathematicians at the University of California's Berkeley campus. If a student is to be wildly passionate about mathematics, the student must have the opportunity to experience the romance of mathematics.
Romance comes first.
Later comes the skills. James J. Asher is the recipient of the Outstanding Professor Award in a faculty of 1,500 Ph. Ds from California's historic first public institution of higher learning, San Jose State University. Both Berkeley and UCLA were branches of San Jose State when they started. His teaching specialty is applied research statistics.