Biographical Information

Dr. Keith Devlin, mathematician, is Executive Director of Stanford University’s Center for the Study of Language and Information and a Consulting Professor of Mathematics at Stanford. He is a cofounder of Stanford’ Media X network — a campuswide research network focused on the design and use of new technologies — and a member of its Executive Committee.

He is the author of twenty-five books, one interactive book on CD-ROM and over seventy published research articles. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a World Economic Forum Fellow. He has received numerous awards.

Devlin has a B.Sc. degree in Mathematics from King’s College London (1968) and a Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Bristol (1971).

His current research work is centered around the task of applying mathematical techniques to issues of language and information and the design of information and reasoning support systems.

He is a regular contributor to NPR’s popular magazine program Weekend Edition (where he is known as “the Math Guy”) and a frequent contributor to various other local and national radio programs, both in the USA and Britain, commenting on advances in mathematics and computing. In addition, he has worked on and appeared in a number of television programs. He writes a monthly column, “Devlin’s Angle,” on the web journal MAA Online and writes occasional articles for Discover magazine. Since 1983, he has written articles on mathematics and computers for The Guardian newspaper in his native Britain.

He is heavily engaged in promoting the public understanding of mathematics and its role in modern society, topics on which he lectures extensively around the world.

Additional information can be found on his web site, including links to sound archives for his “Math Guy” segments, interviews, and recent research.

Books

Recent Books

• The Math Instinct: Why You're a Mathematical Genius (Along with Lobsters, Birds, Cats, and Dogs), published by Thunder's Mouth Press in 2005.
• Sets, Functions and Logic (Third Edition), published by Chapman and Hall in 2003.
• The Millennium Problems: The Seven Greatest Unsolved Mathematical Puzzles of Our Time, published by Basic Books in 2002.
• The Math Gene: How Mathematical Thinking Evolved and Why Numbers Are Like Gossip, published by Basic Books in 2000.
• InfoSense: Turning Information Into Knowledge, published by W. H. Freeman in 1999.
• Mathematics: The New Golden Age (Second Edition), published by Columbia University Press in 1999.
• The Language of Mathematics: Making the Invisible Visible, published in 1998 by W. H. Freeman.

Book Awards

• Life by the Numbers, the companion to the six-part PBS television series of the same name (for which he was an advisor), published by John Wiley in 1998 and nominated for the BABRA Award.
• Logic and Information, published by Cambridge University Press in 1991, won the American Association of Publishers award as “Most Outstanding Book in Computer Science and Processing of 1991.”
• The Math Gene and The Language of Mathematics won the Italian Peano Prize for 2003.

Scheduled Events

Talks at UPS

Thompson Hall Science and Mathematics Seminar

Title: Calculating Animals: The amazing mathematical abilities of animals, birds, and insects and what we can learn from them.
Time & Location: Thursday, March 31 at 4 pm in Thompson Hall 124

Through the mechanism of evolution by natural selection, Nature has produced living creatures that exhibit a wide variety of mathematical abilities. Admittedly, only humans do math using a paper and pencil, and most likely we are the only creatures who are aware of our mathematical abilities. But some of the most lowly-seeming creatures with whom we share this planet exhibit innate mathematical skills that could challenge a college math major. This talk takes a look at some of those natural mathematical abilities and asks, What can we learn from our fellow creatures when it comes to teaching and learning math?

The Math Instinct: Why You're a Mathematical Genius (Along with Lobsters, Birds, Cats, and Dogs), published by Thunder's Mouth Press in 2005.

Joint UPS-MAA Presentation

Title: How much mathematics can be for all?
Time & Location: Friday, April 1, 8:00 pm, Kilworth Chapel

In his book The Math Gene, Devlin presented an evolutionary argument to show that the basic capacity for mathematical thinking is present in everyone as part of our genetic inheritance. But how much mathematics comes in this way? he now asks. Is there a point beyond which most people will simply never get it? Devlin believes there is sufficient evidence to suggest that the answer may be yes, and that among those parts of mathematics that can possibly be mastered only by a few is at least one topic taught in the middle school.

The Math Gene: How Mathematical Thinking Evolved and Why Numbers Are Like Gossip, published by Basic Books in 2000.

UPS Classes

Dr. Devlin will attend the following UPS classes on Friday morning: Math 434 (Abstract Algebra) at 9 am, and Math 300 (Geometry) at 11am.

Presentation for the Mathematical Association of America

MAA Video Presentation

Title: Using Math to Beat the Casinos.
Time & Location: After dinner, in the Wheelock Center’s Marshall Hall (see the PNW MAA Program).

In the mid-1990s, a team of MIT students took mathematics into the Las Vegas casinos and came home with millions of dollars. They were playing blackjack, using a method based on a mathematical discovery made 40 years earlier by professor Edward Thorp. Keith Devlin will introduce a recent BBC television documentary, “Making Millions the Easy Way”, that chronicles the 50-year war between generations of mathematically savvy players and the might of the casinos, that culminated in the MIT assault. Afterwards Devlin will comment briefly on the program and lead a short discussion.

Planning Committee: Rob Beezer, Sigrun Bodine, and DeWayne Derryberry.