James Stuart Tanton (born August 1, 1966) is an Australian-American mathematician and math educator. He is a winner of the Kidder Faculty Prize for his teaching at The St. Mark’s Math Institute, scholar at the

Mathematical Association of America The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) is a professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary edu ...

, author of over ten books on mathematics, curriculum, and

education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...

, and creator of videos on mathematics on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

. As of August 2024 his approximately 360 videos had earned over 2,100,000 views.

Education and professional work

Tanton received his B.A. in mathematics from the

University of Adelaide The University of Adelaide is a public university, public research university based in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. Its main campus in the Adelaide city centre includes many Sa ...

, and he earned his Ph.D. in mathematics from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

in 1994, with a thesis in

algebraic topology Algebraic topology is a branch of mathematics that uses tools from abstract algebra to study topological spaces. The basic goal is to find algebraic invariant (mathematics), invariants that classification theorem, classify topological spaces up t ...

titled ''A Homological Fibration for Gl

nfinity Nfinity is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States. Nfinity markets cheerleading, basketball, and volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score poi ...

'. He taught at the New College,

St. Mary's College of Maryland St. Mary's College of Maryland (SMCM) is a Public college, public Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in St. Mary's City, Maryland.Maryland State Archives, Online Manual, "St. Mary's College Of Maryland: Origin & Fun ...

, and

Merrimack College Merrimack College is a Private university, private Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian university in North Andover, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1947 by the Order of St. Augustine with an initial goal to educate World War II veterans. It en ...

before deciding that, to gain credibility with the high school teachers he hoped to work with, he had to teach high school himself. Tanton taught at St. Mark’s School in Southborough, Massachusetts, from 2002 to 2011. As a presenter working with

Maths Week Ireland Maths Week Ireland (MWI) is an annual all-island (Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland) mathematics outreach initiative which takes place throughout Ireland each October. It was founded in 2006 by Waterford Institute of Technology (now SETU) ...

, Tanton has worked to create interest in mathematics in schools in both parts of Ireland.Maths Week 2020 launches with bumper programme of activity to help people ‘Rethink Maths’

Science Foundation Ireland Science Foundation Ireland (SFI; ) was a statutory body in Ireland. It was an agency of the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, with responsibility for funding oriented basic and applied research in th ...

Currently he is a visiting scholar at the Mathematical Association of America in Washington, DC.

Personal life

Since graduating from the University of Adelaide in 1988, Tanton has been living in the US. He is settled there with his family; his spouse is planetary scientist Lindy Elkins-Tanton, who was born in

Ithaca, New York Ithaca () is a city in and the county seat of Tompkins County, New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake in the Finger Lakes region of New York (state), New York, Ithaca is the largest community in the Ithaca metrop ...

Selected awards and honors

* MathMovesU Math Hero Award for mathematics middle and high school teaching, sponsored by

Raytheon Raytheon is a business unit of RTX Corporation and is a major U.S. defense contractor and industrial corporation with manufacturing concentrations in weapons and military and commercial electronics. Founded in 1922, it merged in 2020 with Unite ...

Company, 2010 * The Kidder Faculty Prize for teaching at St. Mark’s School, 2006 * The Mathematical Association of America's Beckenback Book Prize for ''Solve This: Mathematical Activities for Students and Clubs,'' 2005 * The Mathematical Association of America's

Trevor Evans Award The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) is a professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university, college, and high school teachers; graduate and undergraduate students; pure a ...

for distinguished writing in both 2001 and 2002 * Homer L. Dodge Award for college teaching excellence at The St. Mary’s College of Maryland, 1999 * Princeton University Engineering Council Teaching Award, for teaching excellence, 1994

Selected books by Tanton

''Mathematics Galore: The First Five Years of the St. Mark’s Institute of Mathematics'', Mathematical Association of America, 2012
'' The Encyclopedia of Mathematics'', Facts on File.2005.
''Solve This: Mathematical Activities for Students and Clubs,'' Mathematical Association of America, 2001.

Self-published texts and curricular material

''THINKING MATHEMATICS!'' series: * ''Volume 1: Arithmetic = Gateway to All'' * ''Volume 2: Advanced Counting and Advanced Algebra Systems'' * ''Volume 3: Lines, Circles, Trigonometry and Conics'' * ''Volume 4: Functions and their Graphs '' * ''Volume 5: e, i, pi and all that! '' * ''Volume 6: Calculus '' ''GEOMETRY: Volume I'' and ''GEOMETRY: Volume 2''
''MATH WITHOUT WORDS''
''MATHEMATICAL THINKING: Numbers and their Algebra'' (An advanced course for middle-school students and their teachers.)

References

External links

Thinking Mathematics!
James Tanton's Personal Website *

article and presentation by James Tanton {{DEFAULTSORT:Tanton, James 1966 births Living people Australian mathematics educators Mathematics popularizers Princeton University alumni University of Adelaide alumni Mathematics writers