University Of Manchester Alumni

"Miles of cornfields, and ballet in the evening."

"I am very interested in mathematics in its broader cultural context. This includes the history of mathematics and the people who have studied it, as well as the links between mathematics, music, art, fiction and other artistic activities. Mathematics fits firmly in with the arts in my philosophy. This of course is in line with the Ancient Greeks, who studied, the quadrivium, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. Arithmetic is number; geometry is number in space, music is number in time, and astronomy is number in space and time. Of course, since mathematics is the language of the universe, it is an indispensable tool in science, but I've always viewed it as a creative art and doing mathematics as more akin to making art, music or poetry."

"My 2023 book "Once Upon a Prime", on the links between mathematics and literature, was published by Flatiron Books US and HarperCollins UK, and has been translated into several languages including Korean, Chinese, Italian and Spanish."