Ed Witten, arguably one of the greatest mathematicians/physicists/mathematical physicists alive majored in liberal arts, worked for Nation and New Republic, enrolled in the economics PhD program at UW-Madison, before he switched to math!
Actually Ed Witten was not a total newbie to advanced Math before grad school.From his commemorative lecture:
At about age 11, I was presented with some relatively advanced math books. My father is a theoretical
physicist and he introduced
me to calculus. For a while, math was my passion. My parents, however, were reluctant
to push me too far, too fast with math (as they saw it) and so it was a long time after that before I was exposed to
any math that was really more advanced than basic cal
culus. I am not sure in hindsight whether their attitude was
best or not. However, the result was that for a number of years the math I was exposed to did not seem
fundamentally new and challenging. It is hard to know to what extent this was a factor, but
at any rate for a number
of years my interest in math flagged.
That he learned calculus when he was younger doesn't really explain how he so easily transitioned into mathematical physics after a liberal arts education.
Calculus is relatively basic compared to grad level work in that area.
I wound not be surprised if he is the product of a Math Circle:a nice place to stretch one's mathematical abilities while retaining the bragging rights of never having formally studied math in college.
His mathematical talent is his greatest ability. But the ability to willingly switch fields to find what you're good at (or enjoy) is also important, and something most of us either don't have the nerve or engine to do.
