A very interesting cast of underdog characters appears in the article.

You’ve got one guy with a relentless spirit to continue with mathematics in is spare time after being blacklisted from mainstream academia because of antisemitism.

Another is a childhood prodigy, who set the record for the youngest American IMO team member, but got burned out as an adult and went into finance but found his way back through the mentorship of another mathematician.

And a third was a biology major. After graduating, he worked as a baker. But he wanted a career change so he entered a master’s program in math and proved an impressive result.