How Alabama shaped Tim Cook
No matter how far Apple CEO Tim Cook goes, his thoughts usually return to his childhood in Robertsdale, Ala.
The 65-year-old head of the mammoth tech company recently sat for a profile with The Wall Street Journal , and reminisced about his beginnings in Alabama.
Cook is the son of a shipyard worker and a part-time pharmacist. For a time, the family moved to Pensacola before settling in on East Silverhill Avenue in Robertsdale when Cook was in middle school.
He was later salutatorian of his graduating class in 1978 and voted “most studious.” Cook said math was the first thing in which he remembered excelling.
“I was pretty a good student, and I loved math,” he said. “I loved figuring out complex equations and so forth, and I wanted to be an engineer.”
A researcher discovered the largest known prime number ...
... And he has Alabama ties.
Luke Durant, a 36-year-old researcher who attended the Alabama School of Math and Science in Mobile, made the discovery.
The number, dubbed M136279841, has 41,024,320 decimal digits, which beats out the previous record by 16 million digits, according to a statement released by the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS) on Monday.
Durant plans to donate his $3,000 winnings from the discovery to the math department at the Alabama School of Math and Science, according to the release.
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