Keith Devlin

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Keith J. Devlin
Keith Devlin (2011)
Born16 March 1947 (1947-03-16) (age 77)[1][2]
Hull, England[3][4]
NationalityBritish and American
Alma materKing's College London, University of Bristol
Scientific career
FieldsMathematics
InstitutionsStanford University, King's College London, University of Bristol, University of Manchester, University of Aberdeen, University of Oslo, University of Heidelberg, University of Bonn, University of Toronto, University of Lancaster, Colby College, St. Mary's College of California
Doctoral advisorFrederick Rowbottom

Keith James Devlin (born 16 March 1947) is a British mathematician and popular science writer. Since 1987 he has lived in the United States. He has dual British-American citizenship.[3]

Biography[edit]

He was born and grew up in England, in Kingston upon Hull. There he attended a local primary school followed by Greatfield High School in Hull. In the last school year he was appointed head boy. Devlin earned a BSc (special) in mathematics at King's College London in 1968, and a PhD in mathematics at the University of Bristol in 1971 under the supervision of Frederick Rowbottom.[3][5]

Career[edit]

Later he got a position as a scientific assistant in mathematics at the University of Oslo, Norway, from August till December 1972. In 1974 he became a scientific assistant in mathematics at the University of Heidelberg, Germany. In 1976 he was an assistant professor of mathematics at the University of Toronto, Canada. From 1977 till 1987 he served as a lecturer, then reader, in mathematics at the University of Lancaster, England. From 1987 to 1989 he was a visiting professor of mathematics at Stanford University in California. From 1989 to 1993 he was the Carter Professor of Mathematics and Chair of Department at Colby College in Maine. From 1993 to 2000 he was Dean of Science and a professor of mathematics at St. Mary's College of California. From 2001 until he retired he was a senior researcher at Stanford University.[3]

He is co-founder and executive director of Stanford University's Human-Sciences and Technologies Advanced Research Institute (2006), a co-founder of Stanford Media X university-industry research partnership program, and a senior researcher in the Center for the Study of Language and Information (CSLI).[3] He is a commentator on National Public Radio's Weekend Edition Saturday, where he is known as "The Math Guy."[6]

His current research is mainly focused on the use of different media to teach mathematics to different audiences. He is also co-founder and president of the company BrainQuake, which creates mathematics learning video games, which he set up in 2011.[7] Other topics of his research are the theory of information, models of reasoning, applications of mathematical techniques in the study of communication, and mathematical cognition.[8]

As of 2012 he had authored 34 books and over 80 research articles.[3] Several of his books are aimed at a general audience.

Awards[edit]

Bibliography[edit]

Articles
  • Devlin, Keith I.; Jensen, R. Björn (1975), "Marginalia to a theorem of Silver", ISILC Logic Conference (Proc. Internat. Summer Inst. and Logic Colloq., Kiel, 1974), Lecture Notes in Mathematics, vol. 499, Berlin, New York: Springer-Verlag, pp. 115–142, doi:10.1007/BFb0079419, ISBN 978-3-540-07534-9, MR 0480036 [First proof of Jensen's covering theorem; Keith J. Devlin is credited as Keith I. Devlin in the paper.]
Books

References[edit]

  1. ^ Author information from Library of Congress authorities. Lccn.loc.gov
  2. ^ "British Library Item details". Primocat.bl.uk. Retrieved 6 July 2022.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Curriculum vitae, Profkeithdevlin.com, accessed 3 February 2014.
  4. ^ Author information from German National Library catalogue Archived 30 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine.
  5. ^ Keith Devlin at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  6. ^ Archive of The Math Guy series from NPR's Weekend Edition accessed 9 November 2007
  7. ^ "Brainquake". Brainquake.com. Retrieved 6 July 2022.
  8. ^ "Keith Devlin". 7 July 2014. Archived from the original on 7 July 2014. Retrieved 6 July 2022.
  9. ^ "Sagan Prize Recipients". wonderfest.org. 2011. Retrieved 10 September 2011.
  10. ^ "Honors & Awards". News-service.stanford.edu. Retrieved 6 July 2022.
  11. ^ List of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society, retrieved 10 November 2012.

External links[edit]