John Allen Paulos

John Allen Paulos (born July 4, 1945) is an American professor of mathematics at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He has gained fame as a writer and speaker on mathematics and the importance of mathematical literacy. Paulos writes about many subjects, especially the dangers of mathematical innumeracy, that is, the layperson's misconceptions about numbers, probability, and logic.

Paulos was born in Denver, Colorado, and grew up in Chicago, Illinois, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he attended high school. After his Bachelor of Mathematics at the University of Wisconsin (1967) and his Master of Science at the University of Washington (1968), he received his Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Wisconsin–Madison (1974). In an interview, he described himself as a lifelong skeptic. He was also part of the Peace Corps in the seventies.

His academic work is mainly in mathematical logic and probability theory. His book Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and its Consequences (1988) was a bestseller, and A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper (1995) extended the critique. In his books, Paulos discusses innumeracy with quirky anecdotes, scenarios, and facts, encouraging readers, in the end, to look at their world in a more quantitative way.

He has also written on other subjects, often "combining disparate disciplines," such as the mathematical and philosophical basis of humor in Mathematics and Humor and I Think, Therefore I Laugh, the stock market in A Mathematician Plays the Stock Market, quantitative aspects of narrative in Once Upon a Number, the arguments for God in Irreligion, and most recently "bringing mathematics to bear on...biography" in A Numerate Life.

Paulos also wrote a mathematics-tinged column for the UK newspaper The Guardian and is a Committee for Skeptical Inquiry fellow. Paulos has appeared frequently on radio and television, including a four-part BBC adaptation of A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper and appearances on the Lehrer News Hour, 20/20, Larry King, and David Letterman.

In 2001 Paulos taught a course on quantitative literacy for journalists at the Columbia University School of Journalism. The course stimulated further programs at Columbia and elsewhere in precision and data-driven journalism. His long-running "ABCNews.com" monthly column, Who's Counting, deals with mathematical aspects of stories in the news. All the columns over a 10-year period are archived here.

He is married, a father of two, grandfather of four. Paulos received the 2013 JPBM (Joint Policy Board for Mathematics) Award for Communicating Mathematics on a Sustained Basis to Large Audiences. Paulos received the 2003 AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Award for Promoting the Public Understanding of Science and Technology.

In 2002 he received the University Creativity Award at Temple University. Paulos' article "Counting on Dyscalculia," which appeared in Discover Magazine in 1994, won a Folio Award that year