I’m fortunate enough to have a mathematical concept named after me. And not just Wadge degrees. There’s also the Wadge hierarchy, Wadge reducibility, and the Wadge game. In fact I’ve seen people say they’re interested in “Wadge theory”. A whole theory!
I’ve posted about this before but that was mainly technical and for most readers not all that accessible. It left out the human element, the passion, the drama, the thrill of victory etc. So here’s the real story.
I arrived in Berkeley (California) fresh from getting a math degree at UBC in Vancouver. I arrived a long time ago, in the Fall of 1966 (!). There was a lot going on on campus – roll on from the previous year’s “Free Speech” movement. And the Vietnam war was raging. Soon after I arrived the Marines set up a recruiting table in the student union building. Hundreds of protesters chased them and the police out of the building and across Sproul Plaza into Sproul Hall, the administration building. That was quite a sight, the first of many. But I’ll talk about that another time.