New Scientist (21-Jul-2007): Interview: Why mathematics is beautiful

Christopher Zeeman is a British mathematician who inspired generations of young people, built a world-class maths department from scratch and still manages to find time to correct theorems developed by Euclid in ancient Greece…

You built a world-class mathematics department from scratch at the University of Warwick when it was founded in the 1960s. How?

I wrote to the six best topologists in the world asking them to join me. They all said no. So I wrote again saying the other five had agreed, and all replied to say yes.

That’s the way to do it.

See also: Here’s looking at Euclid