Nov 20, 2006 - Claremont, Calif. -

The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) has chosen Professor of Mathematics Arthur Benjamin as the Polya Lecturer for the 2006-07 and 2007-08 academic years.

The Polya Lecturer Program was established in 1990 to allow the MAA to bring lectures by outstanding expositors to MAA regional sections. Benjamin will speak at at least six of the MAA's 29 sections during that time.

During the fall or spring, each section holds a one- to two-day meeting with lectures, panel discussions, contributed papers and activites designed to elevate collegiate math.

In 2006, Benjamin won the Beckenbach Book Prize from the MAA for his book Proofs that Really Count: The Art of Combinatorial Proof. For that same book, in the category of outstanding academic title, Benjamin won the CHOICE award in 2004 from the American Library Association.

In 2005, Benjamin, who is co-editor of the magazine Math Horizons, was named "America's Best Math Whiz" by Reader's Digest. In 2000, he received the MAA's Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo Award, which honors college or university teachers widely recognized as being exceedingly successful and whose teaching has influence beyond their own institutions.

Benjamin is an engaging speaker with the ability to capture the imagination and attention of audiences of all ages with his dynamic presentation called "Mathemagics." He delights and surprises his viewers by performing lighting-fast mental calculations of enormous numbers and pinpointing the day of the week for any given month and year.

Benjamin has written more than 50 research papers and authored three books. His most recent book, Secrets of Mental Math, was recently published by Random House.

The MAA is the world's largest professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. The MAA has 27,000 members who participate in a variety of activities that foster mathematics education, professional development, student involvement and public policy.