John Allen Paulos
| John Allen Paulos | |
|---|---|
John Allen Paulos
|
|
| Born | July 4, 1945 |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | Mathematics |
| Institutions | Temple University |
| Alma mater | University of Wisconsin–Madison |
| Known for | Author of books and articles on a variety of topics, especially the combatting of innumeracy |
| Notable awards | 2003 AAAS Award |
|
Website math.temple.edu/~paulos |
|
John Allen Paulos (born July 4, 1945) is an American professor of mathematics at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He has gained fame as a writer and speaker on mathematics and the importance of mathematical literacy. Paulos writes about many subjects, especially of the dangers of mathematical innumeracy; that is, the layperson's misconceptions about numbers, probability, and logic.
Paulos was born in Denver Colorado and grew up in Chicago, Illinois and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In an interview he described himself as lifelong skeptic. He went to high school in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. After his Bachelor of Mathematics at University of Wisconsin (1967) and his Master of Science at University of Washington (1968) he received his Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Wisconsin–Madison (1974). He was also part of the Peace Corps in the seventies.
Mathematics is no more computation than literature is typing.
His academic work is mainly in mathematical logic and probability theory.
His book Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and its Consequences (1988) was a bestseller and A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper (1995) extended the critique. In his books Paulos discusses innumeracy with quirky anecdotes, scenarios and facts, encouraging readers in the end to look at their world in a more quantitative way.
...
Wikipedia