Marcus du Sautoy

Marcus du Sautoy is the Charles Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science and Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of New College. In 2001 he won the prestigious Berwick Prize of the London Mathematical Society awarded every two years to reward the best mathematical research made by a mathematician under 40. In 2004 Esquire Magazine chose him as one of the 100 most influential people under 40 in Britain and in 2008 he was included in the prestigious directory Who’s Who. In 2009 he was awarded the Royal Society’s Faraday Prize, the UK’s premier award for excellence in communicating science. He received an OBE for services to science in the 2010 New Year’s Honours List. He also received the Joint Policy for Mathematics Board Communications Award for 2010.

He is author of numerous academic articles and books on mathematics. He has been a visiting Professor at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, the Max Planck Institute in Bonn, the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and the Australian National University in Canberra.

Marcus du Sautoy is author of the best-selling popular mathematics book “The Music of the Primes” published by Fourth Estate in 2003 and translated into 10 languages. It has won two major prizes in Italy and Germany for the best popular science book of the year. His book “Finding Moonshine: a mathematician’s journey through symmetry” is also published by Fourth Estate and appeared in February 2008. It was longlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. His new book The Num8er My5teries was published by Fourth Estate in June 2010.

Marcus du Sautoy writes for the Times, Daily Telegraph, Independent and the Guardian and is frequently asked for comment on BBC radio and television. For several years he had a regular column in the Times called Sexy Science. He was presenter of BBC4’s TV game show Mind Games, for which he was nominated for the Royal Society of Television’s Best Newcomer to a Network award. In 2005 he presented a one hour documentary for BBC4 and BBC2 based on his book The Music of the Primes. In autumn 2008 he wrote and presented a four part landmark TV series for the BBC calledThe Story of Maths. He has presented four BBC Horizons including “Alan and Marcus go forth and multiply” co-presented with comedian Alan Davies and “The Secret You” a film about the science of Consciousness. In 2010 he presented a six part TV series for BBC called The Beauty of Diagrams. He is currently making a new 3 part  landmark series called The Code to be broadcast on BBC2 in autumn 2011.

He has written and presented several series for radio including: 5 Shapes for BBC radio 4 in 2004 and Maths and Music for the Essay on BBC radio 3 in 2007 and The Baroque: from ecstasy to infinityfor BBC radio 3 in 2009. In 2010 he wrote and presented a ten part series for BBC Radio 4 called A Short History of Mathematics. He gave the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures in 2006 entitled THE NUM8ER MY5TERIES, broadcast on Channel Five. His presentations on mathematics, which include “Why Beckham chose the 23 shirt”, have played to a wide range of audiences: from theatre directors to bankers, from diplomats to prison inmates.

Marcus du Sautoy plays the trumpet and football. Like Beckham he also plays in a prime number shirt, no 17, for Recreativo FC based in the Hackney Marshes. Born in 1965, he lives in London with his wife, three children and cat Freddie Ljungberg.