Berkeley mathematics pries Gotti away from dancing and skydiving … and Cuba

Dancing and skydiving took a back seat to mathematics for recent math Ph.D. Felix Gotti. (Photo courtesy of Felix Gotti) Two decades ago, UC Berkeley mathematician Paulo Ney De Souza co-authored a book, Berkeley Problems in Mathematics . At about the same time, Felix Gotti was a teenage salsa dancer in Cuba on the path to becoming a choreographer. Then, De Souza's book, which defines the kinds of questions someone hoping for a degree in math from Berkeley would need to be able to answer, landed in Gotti's hands. Dancing and choreography were never quite the same. After his application to Berkeley initially was rejected, Gotti finally was accepted to the university where he'd dreamed of doing postgraduate work.