I wonder how many math professors think they were actively working on well-known unsolved problems. Is it just a small elite club, or is it every tenured / tenure-track professor in all R1 schools?
I am at an R1 school, I know at least 4 or 5 people personally (Profs and Postdocs) whose entire research programs were annihilated. Like they wrote grant proposals that are totally obsolete now.
