Eugenia Cheng
Eugenia Cheng is a mathematician, author and concert pianist who shares the creativity of maths through books, videos, talks and everyday examples.
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Eugenia’s happenings, collected from public sources, plus her backstory and Starbook, where fans write.
Known for
Basic Books
Basic Books
Basic Books
Basic Books
Profile BooksOverview
- Based in
- Chicago, with frequent work in Europe
- Work
- Mathematician, author, educator and concert pianist
- Education
- BA, MMath and PhD from the University of Cambridge
- Specialism
- Higher-dimensional category theory
- First popular book
- How to Bake Pi (2015)
- Music project
- Founder of Liederstube (2013)
Mini bio
How it started.
Cheng earned her undergraduate degree, MMath and PhD at Cambridge before research and teaching posts in Cambridge, Chicago, Nice and Sheffield. She began making maths videos in 2007, first for graduate students and undergraduates, then for a wider audience.
Reaching beyond the classroom.
Her first popular book, How to Bake Pi, appeared in 2015, using cooking to open up abstract mathematics. That year helped her build a public speaking and freelance career, with appearances including The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. She left her tenured Sheffield post to devote more of her work to public understanding of maths.
Maths and music.
Based in Chicago, she teaches abstract mathematics to art students as Scientist in Residence at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Alongside her research and books, she performs as a pianist and founded Liederstube, an informal home for art song. Her writing often connects mathematical thinking with questions of fairness and social justice.
Creditschronological, newest first
Books
- 2025UnequalAuthor
- 2023Is Math Real?Author
- 2022The Joy of AbstractionAuthor
- 2020x + yAuthor
- 2017Beyond InfinityAuthor
- 2015How to Bake PiAuthor
Research
- 2026A higher-order Eckmann-Hilton argumentCo-author with Alexander S. Corner; preprint
Music
- 2013LiederstubeFounder and pianist
Awards
- JPBM Communications Award2025 · Recognised for bringing mathematics, mathematical ideas and mathematical art to a wide audience.
- Los Angeles Times Book PrizeScience & Technology · Is Math Real? won at the April 2024 ceremony.
- Royal Society Science Book Prize shortlist2017 · Beyond Infinity was shortlisted.
Quotes
If you have been made to feel bad at math, you didn’t fail math, math failed youEugenia Cheng, Her Agenda
In her September 2025 interview, she recalled these words from the dedication of Is Math Real? and her Los Angeles Times Book Prize acceptance.
Trivia
- Her early YouTube maths videos were aimed at graduate students before she began making videos for general audiences.
- Liederstube invites singers to share favourite art songs with Cheng at the piano in an informal setting.
- She has made commissioned mathematical art, including installations for Chicago’s Hotel EMC2.
- She rewrote the words to Strauss’s “Kornblumen” to celebrate her favourite whiskies.
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