The Double Life of John Urschel

A set diagram depicts the places where different groups of objects overlap. Example: in the United States, there are about 1,700 professional football players, and thousands of people pursuing PhDs in math. On an overcast day in late winter, that place is the Norbert Wiener Common Room in MIT's Department of Mathematics, where John Urschel is sitting at a table, chatting. Urschel is an offensive lineman with the NFL's Baltimore Ravens, a three-year pro with 40 regular- season games played and a couple of playoff starts on his football résumé. He is also a doctoral candidate in math at MIT who has passed his qualifying exams and has nine published or accepted research papers on his academic résumé.