Keith Devlin

Author of The Millennium Problems: The Seven Greatest Unsolved Mathematical Puzzles of Our Time

30+ Works 3,455 Members 57 Reviews 1 Favorited

About the Author

Born in England in 1947 and living in America since 1987, Keith Devlin has written more than 20 books and numerous research articles on various elements of mathematics. From 1983 to 1989, he wrote a column on for the Manchester (England) Guardian. The collected columns are published in All the Math show more That's Fit to Print (1994) and cover a wide range of topics from calculating travel expenses to calculating pi. His book Logic and Information (1991) is an introduction to situation theory and situation semantics for mathematicians. Co-author of the PBS Nova episode "A Mathematical Mystery Tour," he is also the author of Devlin's Angle, a column on the Mathematical Association of America's electronic journal. Devlin lives in California, where he is dean of the school of science at Saint Mary's College in Morgana. He is currently studying the use of mathematics to analyze communication and information flow in the workplace. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

Includes the names: K Devlin, K. J. Devlin, Keith Devlin, Keith J. Devlin, Keith Keith J.; Devlin Devlin

Works by Keith Devlin

The Language of Mathematics: Making the Invisible Visible (1998) 405 copies

The Math Gene: How Mathematical Thinking Evolved And Why Numbers Are Like Gossip (2000) 382 copies

The Man of Numbers: Fibonacci's Arithmetic Revolution (2011) 349 copies

Mathematics: The New Golden Age (1988) 280 copies

The Unfinished Game: Pascal, Fermat, and the Seventeenth-Century Letter that Made the World Modern (2008) 220 copies

Mathematics: The Science of Patterns : The Search for Order in Life, Mind, and the Universe (Scientific American… (1994) 204 copies

The Numbers Behind NUMB3RS: Solving Crime with Mathematics (2007) 190 copies

The Math Instinct: Why You're a Mathematical Genius (Along with Lobsters, Birds, Cats, and Dogs) (2005) 187 copies

Introduction to Mathematical Thinking (2012) 165 copies

Goodbye, Descartes: The End of Logic and the Search for a New Cosmology of the Mind (1997) 129 copies

Life by the Numbers (1998) 91 copies

Logic and Information (1963) 87 copies

The Joy of Sets: Fundamentals of Contemporary Set Theory (1993) 73 copies

Infosense: Turning Information Into Knowledge (1999) 62 copies

Sets, Functions, and Logic: An Introduction to Abstract Mathematics (1981) 45 copies

Mathematics Education for a New Era: Video Games as a Medium for Learning (2011) 18 copies

All the Math that's Fit to Print: Articles from The Guardian (Spectrum) (1994) 12 copies

Constructibility (1984) 12 copies

Leonardo and Steve: The Young Genius Who Beat Apple to Market by 800 Years (2011) 11 copies

Fundamentals of Contemporary Set Theory (Universitext Ser.) (1979) 8 copies

The Axiom of Constructibility: A Guide for the Mathematician (Lecture Notes in Mathematics, Vol. 617) (1977) 8 copies

An Electronic Companion to Calculus (1997) 7 copies

Language at Work: Analyzing Communication Breakdown in the Workplace to Inform Systems Design (1996) 6 copies

The Souslin problem (Lecture notes in mathematics, 405) (1974) 5 copies

Microchip Mathematics (1984) 4 copies

Aspects of constructibility (Lecture notes in mathematics) (1973) 3 copies

Micro-Maths Mathematical Problems and Theorems to Consider and Solve on a Computer (1984) 2 copies

Sentencing offenders in magistrates' courts (1970) 1 copy

Die Berechnung des Glücks eine Reise in die Geschichte der Mathematik (2012) 1 copy

Work Explorer

Associated Works

What Is Your Dangerous Idea? Today's Leading Thinkers on the Unthinkable (1914) — Contributor — 633 copies

New Scientist, 18 April 1985 (1985) — Contributor — 1 copy

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Common Knowledge

Other names: "The Math Guy"
Birthdate: 1947-03-16
Gender: male
Nationality: UK (birth)
USA
Birthplace: Hull, Yorkshire, England, UK
Places of residence: Palo Alto, California, USA
England, UK
Education: King's College London (BSc - Mathematics Hons, 1968)
University of Bristol (PhD - Mathematics, 1972)
Occupations: mathematician
professor
journalist
Organizations: Stanford University
St. Mary's College of California
Colby College
University of Lancaster
University of Toronto
University of Heidelberg (show all 8)
University of Oslo
BrainQuake
Awards and honors: Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (1999)
Forum Fellow, World Economic Forum
Carl Sagan Prize for Science Popularization (2007)
Fellow, American Mathematical Society (2012)
Peano Prize (2003)
Pythagoras Prize (2005)
Short biography: Dr. Keith Devlin is executive director of Stanford University's Center for the Study of Language and Information and a consulting professor of mathematics at Stanford. 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). He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a World Economic Forum fellow, and a former member of the Mathematical Sciences Education Board of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. Devlin has been a regular contributor to National Public Radio's popular Weekend Edition, where he is known as "the Math Guy" in his on-air conversations with host Scott Simon. His monthly column, "Devlin's Angle," appears on Mathematical Association of America's web journal MAA Online. [from The Numbers Behind Numb3ers (2007)]

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Reviews

The Man of Numbers: Fibonacci's Arithmetic Revolution by Keith Devlin

Interesting, but slow going. For some reason this book was a bit unsatisfying. Something was lacking in the way it was organized.

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lschiff | 20 other reviews | Sep 24, 2023 |

Goodbye, Descartes: The End of Logic and the Search… by Keith Devlin

Like many philosophers, it seems best to read about Descartes rather than trying to read what he wrote himself.

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mykl-s | 1 other review | Aug 13, 2023 |

Dove va la matematica: Nuova edizione riveduta e… by Keith Devlin

Ben scritto, meno dettagliato e ampio dell'equivalente scritto da Odifreddi (Matematica del '900), è un'ottima introduzione non tecnica ma seria.

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kenshin79 | 2 other reviews | Jul 25, 2023 |

The Math Gene: How Mathematical Thinking Evolved And… by Keith Devlin

Devlin posited some interesting ideas here, but the thing that I liked the most was his sheer passion about math and his desire to share that love with others. It worked, too -- I'm picking up some books on math so I can further my education and maybe catch some of that love. Definitely worth reading.

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SwitchKnitter | 4 other reviews | Dec 19, 2021 |

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