Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences
Chalkdust allows maths to be openly fun and in this way accessible – we try very hard to mix interesting mathematics with excellent puzzles and humour.
I lived in London for 12 years, co-founding Chalkdust, before moving to Durham in 2020. My research is in building mathematical models of complex and biological fluids, which started with chocolate fountains in 2012. I got into science and maths communication through talking about chocolate on stage and on the radio, and have since enjoyed fun side projects like studying the coin denominations, making LaTeX packages that put actual hats on variables, a Cliffs & Richards calendar, and finding and visiting every possible bridge height sign in the UK.
Chalkdust is a magazine for the mathematically curious – a colourful printed magazine which publishes every six months and features popular maths articles and fun pages. All the magazine tropes are there – puzzles, quizzes, agony aunts, top ten lists, fashion advice – despite no-one calling for them. It’s put together by volunteers (Clare and I are on the editorial team) including some of our undergrads and postgrads, which is a great way to introduce them to peer review and the joys of LaTeX typesetting.
We ask that all articles – which are mostly written by external contributors before undergoing a review process – start no higher than the level of an enthusiastic first-year undergrad, and so we hope our magazine is fun and accessible to maths enthusiasts old and new. It’s also very pretty and we try very hard to make it look good. It’s also free online if you prefer your entertainment that way.
Chalkdust allows maths to be openly fun and in this way accessible – we try very hard to mix interesting mathematics with excellent puzzles and humour. Over 20 issues, we’ve curated a compendium of interesting maths things across all subfields, submitted by our readers. And it’s a platform where the team, who enjoy maths, can just be silly. You’d think that the agony aunt column – where serious life dilemmas are replied to with maths puns – would be scraping the barrel after 20 issues, and yet here we are, still scraping away.
We distribute 3000 copies across 29 UK universities, ship internationally, and send boxes to schools. It’s lovely to see UCAS forms mentioning the magazine as inspiration for studying maths. And further up, it’s great that many former team members have used their involvement as evidence of peer review and communication skills for job and academic applications, and many of our authors have been able to point to their published work in their careers. On a personal note, it’s always nice to visit new places and hear someone mention that they enjoyed something they stumbled upon in the magazine.
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