2026 Gold Glove Winners

Major League Baseball announced its 2026 Gold Glove winners.

What Happens in Les Diablerets Stays in Les Diablerets

I am heading off to Les Diablerets for a few days for the 2026 GeoCow workshop, where I'll be mentoring a project group on the question of whether large language models can help in the validation of opinion-dynamics models.

RIP Patrick Stewart (1940–2026)

This has been a rough week for Star Trek fans. Just a few days after we lost Walter Koenig (who played Pavel Chekov in The Original Series), now comes the news that Sir Patrick Stewart has died. (Here is his Wikipedia entry.) He, of course, played Captain Jean-Luc Picard on The Next Generation, Professor X in the X-Men movies, and many other things. Back when I was living in Oxford, I also had the chance to see him on the stage in Waiting for Godot (and he was amazing in it).

Milwaukee Brewers Win 2026 World Series

Congratulations to the Milwaukee Brewers on winning the World Series for the first time in franchise history.

What Happens in Oxford Stays in Oxford (yet again)

I am heading to Oxford for a few days to visit my old stomping grounds!

Dodgers Head to the National League Championship Series!

The Dodgers just finished off the Braves (by 3 games to 1) to win their National League Division Series, and they are now heading to the National League Championship Series to face the Milwaukee Brewers. Go Dodgers!

2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (for Optogenetics)

The 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann, and Georg Nagel "for their discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics." There have been many discussions over the years that optogenetics pioneers would eventually get a Nobel Prize, and this year is the year.

"Data Ethics and Mathematicians"

Here is a new short article called "Data Ethics and Mathematicians"

(I wrote it for SIAM News only about 3.5 years after I promised them that I would write this article. 🤷🏻‍♂️)