Konrad Jacobs, Erlangen, Copyright is MFO · CC BY-SA 2.0 de

Martin David Kruskal's work on solitons became his most celebrated contribution to mathematical physics, part of a career that ranged from plasma physics to general relativity and spanned decades at Princeton, where he founded the Program in Applied and Computational Mathematics. He was equally known for a lighter mathematical pursuit: the Kruskal count, a card trick whose effect is powered by genuine mathematics rather than sleight of hand, one that still confounds professional magicians.