Marc Abrahams (born 1956^{[citation needed]}) is an American mathematician and scientific editor. He is the editor and co-founder ofAnnals of Improbable Research and the master of ceremonies at the annualIg Nobel Prize celebration, which he founded in 1991. He was formerly editor of theJournal of Irreproducible Results.^[1]

Abrahams is married toRobin Abrahams, also known as "Miss Conduct", a columnist for theBoston Globe.^[2]

Abrahams graduated fromHarvard College with a degree inapplied mathematics.^[3] While working full time as a software engineer in 1990, he reached out to retired math columnistMartin Gardner asking him to recommend publications that might publish Abrahams' humor writing about math and science. Gardner replied with one defunct journal called theJournal of Irreproducible Results which Israeli scientists Alex Kohn andHarry Lipkin had founded in 1955 and abandoned after about ten years due to the workload. Abrahams restarted the journal and devoted his evenings to working on it, often getting help from the two founders. He was editor for four years, and he organized the first annualIg Nobel Prize ceremony in 1991.^[4] Because theJournal of Irreproducible Results publisher did not provide funds or sufficient support, Abrahams left to create his own rival magazine called theAnnals of Improbable Research, also known as AIR.^[4] By 2004, the magazine was in its tenth year and Abrahams published a daily blog, monthly email newsletter, and column inThe Guardian in addition to books related to improbable research.^[4]

Books written or edited by Abrahams include:

• This Is Improbable (ISBN 978-1-85168-931-6)
• The Ig Nobel Prizes (ISBN 978-0-525-94753-0)
• Why Chickens Prefer Beautiful Humans (ISBN 978-0-7528-6846-2)
• Sex As a Heap of Malfunctioning Rubble (ISBN 978-1-56305-312-2)
• The Best of "Annals of Improbable Research" (ISBN 978-0-71673-094-1)
• The Man Who Tried to Clone Himself (ISBN 978-0-45228-772-3)

• Annals of Improbable Research
• Ig Nobel Prize website
• "Laugh first, think later" (Abrahams' own account of JIR and AIR),The Guardian, June 1, 2004
• Marc Abrahams atTED
  • "A science award that makes you laugh, then think" (TEDMED 2014)

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