Oct 19, 2011 - Claremont, Calif. -

Mathematics professor and Harvey Mudd College’s resident mathemagician Art Benjamin is featured in a newly released book from Princeton University Press.

Entitled “Fascinating Mathematical People,” the book delivers candid portraits and informal interviews with 16 prominent members of the mathematical community. Benjamin’s profile and interview are found in Chapter 7.

In it, he shares details from his childhood, including the challenges of growing up with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and his love of performing magic. The chapter also chronicles his path from Carnegie Mellon undergraduate to Harvey Mudd College mathematics professor and magician extraordinaire.

A mathematical celebrity, Benjamin and his art of “mathemagics” have led to many public performances and a guest appearance on Comedy Central's The Colbert Report. In 2006, he won the Beckenbach Book Prize from the Mathematical Association of America (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 2004 CHOICE award from the American Library Association.

While serving as co-editor of the magazine Math Horizons, he was named “America's Best Math Whiz” in 2005 by Reader's Digest. In 2000, Benjamin 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. He has written more than 70 research papers and authored four books. His most recent books are "Secrets of Mental Math," published by Random House, and "Biscuits of Number Theory," published by the MAA. In 2007, 2009, and 2011, he created DVD courses on "The Joy of Mathematics", "Discrete Mathematics", and "The Secrets of Mental Math" for The Teaching Company as part of their Great Courses series.

To learn more about the book “Fascinating Mathematical People,” visit Princeton University Press.