Mathematicians have lots of interests outside of mathematics (we are large, we contain multitudes). I enjoy running (slowly, these days). Back in grad school, I swam laps with my friends and officemates Mike Tait and Jay Cummings—we were lucky to go to grad school in San Diego, where you can swim outdoors year-round. Like most Duke alums, I am a fan of college basketball, and I watch a lot of Duke basketball games. You should ask me about the Krzyzewskiville experience some time. I am fan of Trappist monks and the beers that they brew.
Some of my interests have resulted in things that I can brag about, which I will now do.
Crosswords
I enjoy all kinds of word games, but especially crosswords and cryptic crosswords. I also dabble a bit in crossword construction, and have two published puzzles in major venues.
| Won, Robert. “I’ll Hazard a Guess,” The Wall Street Journal. April 20, 2023. | WSJ Link Puzzle pdf / Solution pdf |
| Won, Robert. The Daily Crossword (Tuesday), The New York Times. June 14, 2022. | NY Times Link (requires subscription) Wordplay blog |
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I have also constructed crossword puzzles for three wedding receptions (and a mini crossword for a save-the-date!). If you’d like to talk crossword construction, feel free to reach out!
Trivia
One of my favorite pastimes is pub trivia with friends. As a postdoc at Wake Forest, I regularly joined the Masters students for trivia at Foothills Brewing. When we were all postdocs at UW, Dami Lee, Bennet Goeckner, and I (together with Hilary Goeckner) comprised the core of a fun pub trivia team. You can also find me as WonR on LearnedLeague.
In July 2022, I was on Jeopardy!, which was an incredible experience. I returned in October 2023 for the inaugural Champion’s Wildcard Competition.
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| Jeopardy! July 8, 2022. | J! Archive IMDb |
| Jeopardy! July 11, 2022. | J! Archive IMDb |
| Jeopardy! Champions Wildcard Competition October 11, 2022 | J! Archive IMDb |
If you count my appearance on Jeopardy! with Mayim Bialik, then my Bacon number is 3 (Robert Won ➔ Mayim Bialik ➔ Phil Leeds ➔ Kevin Bacon). This gives me an Erdős-Bacon number of 6. If you’re a Bacon-number-purist (movies only), then my Bacon number is infinite, and please cast me in your next movie. (My acting experience begins and ends with a one-act play when I was in seventh grade.)
Neuroscience
As an undergraduate, I had an interest in cognitive neuroscience and neuroeconomics. I spent several years as a research assistant in the Woldorff Lab at Duke University and I also spent a summer at the Glimcher Lab at the NYU Center for Neural Science, where I was mentored by Hiroshi Yamada.
Working with Greg Appelbaum at Duke got my name on a couple of publications in neuroscience, though I have forgotten almost everything I once knew.
| Appelbaum, L.G., Boehler, C.N., Davis, L.A., Won, R.J., Woldorff, M.G. (2014). “The dynamics of proactive and reactive cognitive control processes in the human brain”. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 26(5), 1021–1038. | Journal PubMed |
| Appelbaum, L.G., Boehler, C.N., Won, R.J., Davis, L.A., Woldorff, M.G. (2012). “Strategic Allocation of Attention Reduces Temporally Predictable Stimulus Conflict”. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 24(9), 1834–1848. | Journal PubMed |
Who confers distinction upon you? What do you possess that you have not received? But if you have received it, why are you boasting as if you did not receive it?
― 1 Corinthians 4:7