The 2010 JPBM Communications Award is made to Marcus du Sautoy, Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science and Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford.
The JPBM (Joint Policy Board for Mathematics) is an umbrella organization for four major American mathematical societies: the American Mathematical Society, the American Statistical Association, the Mathematical Association of America, and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. The JPBM Communications Award was established in 1988 to recognize journalists, mathematicians, and others who, on a sustained basis, bring mathematical ideas and information to non-mathematical audiences. The award recognizes a significant accumulated contribution to the public understanding of mathematics.
For the past fifteen years Professor du Sautoy has complemented his love of mathematical discovery with a passion for communicating mathematics to a broad public. He has reached hundreds of thousands through his books, television shows, and hundreds of articles and appearances in newspapers, magazines, television, and radio. His 2003 book on the Riemann Hypothesis, entitled "The Music of the Primes", is a best-seller which has been translated into 10 languages. In his 2008 book "Symmetry: A Journey into the Patterns of Nature", du Sautoy guides the reader through groups and symmetry, from Babylonia to moonshine theory, while at the same time giving an engaging glimpse into mathematicians' minds. His four part television, the Story of Maths, presents a fascinating look at the development of mathematics from the design of the pyramids in Egypt to Perelman's proof of Poincaré's Conjecture.
Whether it is talking about Beckham's choice of number on a sports radio program, explaining the work of the Abel prize winner on Norwegian television, writing a weekly math column for the London Times, hosting a television game show based on math puzzles, or delivering the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, Marcus du Sautoy invariably seizes opportunities to make mathematics more accessible and more appealing.