New Yorker: Math prof’s charges don’t add up
By Jesse Noyes
Boston Herald Business Reporter

Wednesday, September 20, 2006 - Updated: 09:53 AM EST

The New Yorker fired back yesterday at allegations that the magazine defamed a Harvard math professor, saying it stands behind the story and its authors.

New Yorker v. Math prof.: Related articles, multimedia & images » Math prof says New Yorker defamed him» Prof Yau’s website» New Yorker: Manifold Destiny» Statement by The New Yorker

Harvard professor Shing-Tung Yau, and his Boston lawyer Howard Cooper, sent a letter to The New Yorker on Monday demanding a correction and an apology from the magazine for a 10,000-word article and illustration it printed on Aug. 28.

“Contrary to Dr. Yau’s assertions, the article is nuanced and fair, and was prepared using ethical standards of journalism,” the magazine said in a statement. “Dr. Yau, his supporters and his point of view were given ample space in the article.”

The article, titled “Manifold Destiny,” dealt with how Yau - and two of his students - allegedly attempted to share credit for solving a mathematical problem called the Poincare conjecture with Russian mathematician Grigory Perelman.

Cooper’s letter said that the article’s authors, Pulitzer Prize-winner Sylvia Nasar and David Gruber, knowingly defamed Yau and never gave him a chance to respond to charges in the story.

But The New Yorker said the article was the result of four months of reporting and hours of meticulous fact-checking. The authors spent over 20 hours interviewing Yau, conducted approximately 100 other interviews with people in Yau’s field and even traveled to China to research the story.

Cooper said yesterday, “It’s interesting that the New Yorker has been unable to respond at all to the very specific allegations made in the letter. It really doesn’t matter how many hours of interviews they did, where they went or with whom they spoke, if they have no response to very detailed claims made by Dr. Yau.”

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