Keith Devlin
Dr. Keith Devlin is a co-founder and Executive Director of the university's H-STAR institute, a Consulting Professor in the Department of Mathematics, a co-founder of the Stanford Media X research network, and a Senior Researcher at CSLI. He is a World Economic Forum Fellow and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His current research is focused on the use of different media to teach and communicate mathematics to diverse audiences. He also works on the design of information/reasoning systems for intelligence analysis. Other research interests include: theory of information, models of reasoning, applications of mathematical techniques in the study of communication, and mathematical cognition. He has written 26 books and over 80 published research articles. Recipient of the Pythagoras Prize, the Peano Prize, the Carl Sagan Award, and the Joint Policy Board for Mathematics Communications Award. He is "the Math Guy" on National Public Radio.
“For all the time schools devote to the teaching of mathematics, very little (if any) is spent trying toconvey just what the subject is about. Instead, the focus is on learning and applying various proceduresto solve math problems. That's a bit like explaining soccer by saying it is executing a series of maneuversto get the ball into the goal. Both accurately describe various key features, but they miss the \what?"and the \why?" of the big picture.”