Dec 4, 2016; Baltimore, MD, USA; Baltimore Ravens guard John Urschel (64) warms up prior to the game against the Miami Dolphins at M&T Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mitch Stringer-USA TODAY Sports

Baltimore Ravens guard John Urschel has been featured in Forbes Magazine’s “30 Under 30” in the field of science. Urschel is well known in the NFL for his career in academia.

For a backup offensive lineman, the Baltimore Ravens’ John Urschel certainly gets some press. He’s been in commercials with J.J. Watt, the Wall Street Journal, you name it. He might just be the most popular backup lineman in the league.

Urschel can add another feather to his cap, as he has been featured in Forbes Magazine’s “30 Under 30” in the field of science.

His bio reads: “Urschel has published six peer-reviewed mathematics papers to date and has three more ready for review. That’s a respectable publication history for someone who only started pursuing their PHD at MIT this year. He’s won academic awards for his math prowess. All this while playing guard for the Baltimore Ravens.”

It’s exceptionally impressive for Urschel to be on this list, considering he’s the second-youngest person on the list at just 25, and he shares the list with the scientist who discovered gravitational waves.

This is far from the first impressive thing Urschel has done in his academic career. Urschel is a Rhodes Scholar, and started pursuing his Ph. D. in mathematics this year.

In 2015, Urschel co-authored a paper in the Journal of Computational Mathematics. The paper was titled “A Cascadic Multigrid Algorithm for Computing the Fiedler Vector of Graph Laplacians.” The paper included “a cascadic multigrid algorithm for fast computation of the Fiedler vector of a graph Laplacian, namely, the eigenvector corresponding to the second smallest eigenvalue.”

While all of that sounds like word salad to those of us not well-versed in mathematics, it’s a pretty impressive feat, especially considering how young he is, and the fact that he’s done all of this while a member of the Baltimore Ravens.

Want your voice heard? Join the The Baltimore Wire team! Write for us!

Urschel played 13 games for the Baltimore Ravens last season, and started in three of them. It’s very possible that Urschel could be looked at as the future starting center for the Ravens if current center Jeremy Zuttah is released.