Keith J. Devlin
Keith Devlin in 2011
Born	(1947-03-16)16 March 1947 (age 78)[1][2] Hull, England[3][4]
Alma mater	King's College London University of Bristol
Known for	Regular speaker, writer and advocate for improving public understanding of math
Spouse	Janet Carey (m. 1967)
Scientific career
Fields	Mathematics
Institutions	Stanford 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
Thesis	Some Aspects of Constructibility (1971)
Doctoral advisor	Frederick Rowbottom
Website	profkeithdevlin.org

Keith J. Devlin (born 16 March 1947) is a British and American mathematician and professor emeritus atStanford University.^[5] He is known for his work in mathematical cognition, information theory, and the public communication of mathematics. Devlin has authored more than 30 books and numerous scholarly articles. He was a regular commentator on National Public Radio (NPR) as “the Math Guy” and is the co-founder and President of BrainQuake, an educational technology company that develops mathematics learning games.^[3][6][7]

He was born and grew up in England, inKingston upon Hull, where he attendedGreatfield High School.^[3] Devlin earned a BSc (special) in mathematics atKing's College London in 1968, and a mathematics PhD in logic at theUniversity of Bristol in 1971 under the supervision ofFrederick Rowbottom.^[3][8][9]

Later he got a position as a scientific assistant in mathematics at theUniversity of Oslo,Norway, from August till December 1972. In 1974 he became a scientific assistant in mathematics at theUniversity of Heidelberg, Germany. In fall 1976 he was an assistant professor of mathematics at theUniversity of Toronto, Canada. From spring 1977 through 1987 he served as a lecturer, then reader, in mathematics at theUniversity of Lancaster, England. From 1987 to 1989 he was a visiting associate professor of mathematics and philosophy at Stanford University in California. From 1989 to 1993 he was the Carter Professor and Chair of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science atColby College in Maine. From 1993 to 2000 he was Dean of Science atSt. Mary's College of California.^[3]

From 2001 until he retired he was a senior researcher at theCenter for the Study of Language, an independent research center at Stanford University.^[3] He was also co-founder and executive director of Stanford University's formerHuman-Sciences and Technologies Advanced Research Institute (2006), and a co-founder of Stanford Media X university-industry research partnership program.^[3] He was a commentator onNational Public Radio'sWeekend Edition Saturday, where he was known as "The Math Guy."^[10]

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.^[11] 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.^[12]

As of 2023 he had authored 33 books and over 80 research or expository articles. Most of his books are aimed at a general audience.^[3]

• Joint Policy Board for Mathematics Communications Award, 2001^[3]
• In 2007 he receivedWonderfest'sCarl Sagan Prize for Science Popularization.^[13]
• 2004 International Pythagoras Prize in Mathematics, in the category Best Expository Text in the Mathematical Sciences for the Italian translation ofThe Millennium Problems^[14]
• Fellow of theAmerican Mathematical Society, 2012^[15]

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 ofJensen's covering theorem; KeithJ. Devlin is credited as KeithI. Devlin in the paper.]

Books

• Constructibility. Springer. 1984.ISBN 3-540-13258-9.
• Logic and Information. Cambridge University Press. 1991.ISBN 0-521-49971-2.
• The Joy of Sets: Fundamentals of Contemporary Set Theory. Springer. 1993.ISBN 0-387-94094-4.
• Mathematics: The Science of Patterns. Holt Paperbacks. 1996.ISBN 0-8050-7344-2.
• Goodbye, Descartes: the End of Logic and the Search for a New Cosmology of the Mind. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 1997.ISBN 0-471-25186-0.
• The Language of Mathematics: Making the Invisible Visible. Holt Paperbacks. 1998.ISBN 0-8050-7254-3.
• Mathematics: The New Golden Age. Columbia University Press. 1999.ISBN 0-231-11639-X.
• Life by the Numbers. Wiley. 1999.ISBN 0471328227.
• The Math Gene: How Mathematical Thinking Evolved and Why Numbers Are Like Gossip. Basic Books. 2000.ISBN 0-465-01619-7.
• The Millennium Problems: the Seven Greatest Unsolved Mathematical Puzzles of Our Time. Basic Books. 2002.ISBN 0-465-01730-4.
• The Math Instinct: Why You're a Mathematical Genius (Along with Lobsters, Birds, Cats, and Dogs). Thunder's Mouth Press. 2006.ISBN 1-56025-839-X.
• The Numbers Behind NUMB3RS: Solving Crime with Mathematics. Plume. 2007.ISBN 978-0-452-28857-7. with coauthorGary Lorden
• The Unfinished Game: Pascal, Fermat, and the Seventeenth-Century Letter that Made the World Modern. Basic Books. 2008.ISBN 978-0-465-00910-7.
• The Man of Numbers: Fibonacci's Arithmetic Revolution. Walker Publishing Co. 2011.ISBN 978-0-8027-7812-3.
• Mathematics Education for a New Era: Video Games as a Medium for Learning. A K Peters. 2011.ISBN 978-1-56881-431-5.
• Introduction to Mathematical Thinking. Keith Devlin (18 July 2012). 2012.ISBN 978-0615653631.

• Official website including hiscurriculum vitae
• Devlin's AngleArchived 31 December 2020 at theWayback Machine — column at theMathematical Association of America

• 1947 births
• Living people
• Alumni of King's College London
• Alumni of the University of Bristol
• Set theorists
• Stanford University staff
• 20th-century British mathematicians
• 21st-century British mathematicians
• Mathematicians from Kingston upon Hull
• Fellows of the American Mathematical Society
• Mathematics popularizers

• Webarchive template wayback links
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from September 2022
• Articles with hCards