Ivars Peterson

Ivars Peterson ( born December 4, 1948) is a Canadian journalist who has emerged through popular articles and books on mathematics and the natural sciences.

Peterson studied Physics, Chemistry and Education at the University of Toronto (Bachelor 's degree ), and then taught school for eight years before he made in 1980 a master's degree in journalism at the University of Missouri in Columbia. He wrote more than 25 years for the weekly U.S. magazine Science News in Washington DC and is known by a weekly online column Ivars Peterson 's Math Trek. He is currently a Publishing Director and Head of Public Relations (Director of Publications and Communications ) at the Mathematical Association of America operates. He lives in Washington, D.C.

He is known for several popular science books on mathematics that originated in part from his columns. Over 10 years he wrote a column in the mathematics popular science magazine for young muse. In 1991 he was awarded the Joint Policy Board for Mathematics Communications Award, which is awarded, among others, by the MAA and the American Mathematical Society for Popularization of mathematics.

Writings

• Mathematical expeditions - an exploration of modern mathematics, spectrum 1992, 1998 ( English original: The Mathematical Tourist: Snapshots of Modern Mathematics, WH Freeman, 1988, 1998)
• Islands of Truth: A Mathematical Mystery Cruise, WH Freeman, 1990
• What Newton did not know: Chaos in the Solar System, Birkhauser 1999, Island 1997 ( English original: Newton 's Clock: Chaos in the Solar System, WH Freeman, 1993)
• Fatal Defect: Chasing Killer Computer Bugs, Times Books, 1995
• The Jungles of Randomness: A Mathematical Safari, Wiley, 1998
• Fragments of Infinity: A Kaleidoscope of Math and Art, Wiley, 2001
• Mathematical Treks: From Surreal Numbers to Magic Circles, Mathematical Association of America, 2002

With his wife, Nancy Henderson, he wrote two books on mathematics for children:

• Math Trek: Adventures in the MathZone, Wiley, 2000
• Math Trek 2: A Mathematical Space Odyssey, Wiley, 2001