Marcus du Sautoy

Author

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 new 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.

Television & Radio

Marcus du Sautoy writes for the Times, Daily Telegraph, Independent and the Guardian and is frequently asked for comment on BBC radio and television. He has a regular column in the Times called Sexy Maths. 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. He is also presenter of BBC4’s TV game show Mind Games, for which he has been 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. He gave the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures in 2006 entitled THE NUM8ER MY5TERIES, broadcast on Channel Five. In the autumn of 2008 he wrote and presented a four part landmark series for the BBC called The Story of Maths. 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.

Personal

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.  

A Small Sample of Marcus' Speech Topics

• The Music of the Primes:  This talk explores the power of mathematics to find patterns in seemingly random information. It illustrates the power of lateral thinking. Primes are also key to Internet Cryptography
• Finding Moonshine: A Mathematician’ Journey Through Symmetry:  Symmetry is all around us. Our eyes and minds are drawn to symmetrical objects, from the sphere to the swastika, from the pyramid to the pentagon.  This talk takes a unique look into the mathematical mind as Marcus explores deep conjectures about symmetry
• The Uncrackable Code - Codes have fascinated people for generations:  This presentation aims at producing some mathematical insight into today and tomorrow's world of cryptography.
• The secret of the winning streak:  Find out how maths provides the best strategy for optimising your success in game shows and gambling.
• The Story of the Story of Maths:  Marcus provides an insight into the making of his landmark series for the BBC charting the history of mathematics from Ancient Egypt to the modern day
• Why Beckham Chose the 23 Shirt:  In pubs and clubs, and on internet sites, there was much debate over the mystical meaning behind Beckham's choice of the number 23 shirt to play for Real Madrid.  Marcus will explore some of the interesting properties of prime numbers and explain why they are important numbers both for mathematicians and footballers.
• Mathematics: the ultimate fortune teller:  Mathematics is a powerful tool to be able to make predications of what is likely to happen in the future.  Mathematics is the science of pattern searching. It provides the language to analyse data that has been collected in the past, to model it in such a way that you can have a good shot at predicting what is going to happen in the future.
• Music: the act of sounding mathematics:  Marcus explores how mathematicians and musicians are drawn to the same patterns and structures to create their art.  As Bach’s friend Mizler once declared: Music is the act of sounding mathematics.

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