MathandCobb: A Math Prof's Feed
A UConn number theorist on what's happening in math right now: Riemann-style conjectures, Galois groups, AI proofs and how to draw the Mona Lisa in Desmos.
What it is
@mathandcobb is the TikTok of Álvaro Lozano-Robledo, a mathematics professor at the University of Connecticut who works in number theory. UConn Today reports that he started the account in January 2021, during the pandemic, looking for community at a time when isolation was wearing on him, and partly because he saw few creators covering advanced mathematics. When we checked, the verified account had about 270,000 followers and 6.3 million likes.
Videos are in English. This isn't homework help or exam hacks: it's a working mathematician explaining what's happening in the field right now and how it works from the inside.
Why we picked it
It's a rare genre: math news from an active researcher. In autumn 2026 the feed covered the "Quasi Riemann Hypothesis," for which OpenAI had proposed a proof, explaining what it is and what would follow from it. Another video walks through a paper showing that the sporadic group M23 is Galois over Q, and how language models helped with that research. He also adds sober commentary to splashy announcements, separating genuine progress from bad framing.
Our favourite is the summer video on how the Collatz Conjecture was "formally verified false" in Lean for two and a half days. The proof turned out not to be a proof at all, just an exploit of a bug in the Lean kernel. It's a brilliant lesson in how formal verification works and why even it deserves scrutiny.
There's lighter fare too, like drawing the Mona Lisa in the Desmos graphing calculator with functions. And a human side: his Human Mathematicians interview project, with guests from a Princeton PhD student to fellow professors, career advice for students (including a guest post on Terence Tao's blog) and his own small student award, the MaC Fund For ME.
He's also candid about the harder side of the job. In one October video he talks about survivor's guilt at having made it in academia, and why that pushes him to help students follow. In another he gently ribs the calculus haters. It makes the feed warm as well as clever.
Where to start
- His welcome video, where he introduces himself.
- The Collatz-in-Lean story.
- The Mona Lisa in Desmos, for formula-shy viewers.
- His explainer on the Quasi Riemann Hypothesis.
- Any clip from the Human Mathematicians series.
Who it's for
High school and university students considering math as a career. Programmers and anyone following AI who wants to know what it's actually doing in research. Grown-ups who left math behind at school but still miss a beautiful problem. Expect the occasional term like "Galois group"; he explains it without dumbing it down.
Quick answers
Is it hard to follow? Sometimes. Some videos assume university-level math, but plenty work without it.
Who is the creator? Álvaro Lozano-Robledo, a number theorist and professor of mathematics at UConn.
How often does he post? In early October 2026, almost every day.
