Amir Aczel facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Amir D. Aczel
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| Born | November 6, 1950 Haifa, Israel
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| Died | November 26, 2015 (aged 65) Nîmes, France
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| Alma mater | University of California, Berkeley University of Oregon |
| Known for | Being an author of popular books on mathematics and science |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematics, history of mathematics, history of science |
Amir Dan Aczel (born November 6, 1950 – died November 26, 2015) was a smart writer and teacher. He was born in Haifa, Israel, and later became an American citizen. He loved mathematics and the history of science. He wrote many popular books that helped people understand tricky math and science ideas.
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About Amir D. Aczel
Amir D. Aczel was born in Haifa, Israel. His father was a ship captain. He sailed mostly in the Mediterranean Sea. When Amir was ten, his father taught him how to steer a ship. He also learned how to navigate. This experience later inspired one of Amir's books, The Riddle of the Compass. Amir finished high school in Haifa in 1969.
His Education and Teaching
When Amir was 21, he went to the University of California, Berkeley. He earned a degree in mathematics in 1975. A year later, he received a Master of Science degree. Later, he earned a PhD in statistics from the University of Oregon.
Amir Aczel taught math at different universities. These included schools in California, Alaska, and Massachusetts. He also taught in Italy and Greece. In 1984, he married his wife, Debra. They had a daughter named Miriam. He also had a stepdaughter.
He became a professor at Bentley College in Massachusetts. There, he taught classes about statistics. He also taught about the history of science and history of mathematics. He wrote two textbooks on statistics.
His Popular Books and Achievements
While teaching at Bentley, Amir Aczel wrote many non-technical books. These books made math and science easy to understand. His book, Fermat's Last Theorem, became a bestseller in the United States. It was even nominated for a special book award.
Amir Aczel appeared on TV shows like CNN and The History Channel. He also received important awards. In 2004, he became a Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. He was also a visiting scholar at Harvard University in 2007. He received a grant to research his 2015 book, Finding Zero.
In 2003, he became a research fellow at Boston University. In 2011, he taught math at University of Massachusetts Boston. He was also a speaker at a big ideas conference in Mexico. Amir Aczel passed away in Nîmes, France, in 2015. He died from cancer.
Books by Amir D. Aczel
- Complete Business Statistics, 8th Edition, 2012. ISBN: 978-1935938187
- Statistics: Concepts and Applications, 1995. ISBN: 978-0256119350
- How to Beat the I.R.S. at Its Own Game: Strategies to Avoid and Fight an Audit, 1996. ISBN: 978-1-56858-048-7
- Fermat's Last Theorem: Unlocking the Secret of an Ancient Mathematical Problem, 1997. ISBN: 978-1-56858-077-7
- God's Equation: Einstein, Relativity, and the Expanding Universe, 1999. ISBN: 1-56858-139-4
- The Mystery of the Aleph: Mathematics, the Kabbalah, and the Search for Infinity, 2000. ISBN: 1-56858-105-X
- Probability 1: The Book That Proves There Is Life in Outer Space, Harvest Books, January 2000. ISBN: 0-15-601080-1.
- The Riddle of the Compass: The Invention that Changed the World, 2001. ISBN: 0-15-100506-0
- Entanglement: The Greatest Mystery in Physics, 2002. ISBN: 978-1-56858-232-0 and ISBN: 978-0-452-28457-9
- Pendulum: Léon Foucault and the Triumph of Science, 2003. ISBN: 0-7434-6478-8
- Chance: A Guide to Gambling, Love, and the Stock Market, 2004. ISBN: 1-56858-316-8
- Descartes' Secret Notebook: A True Tale of Mathematics, Mysticism, and the Quest to Understand the Universe, 2005. ISBN: 0-7679-2033-3
- The Artist and the Mathematician: The Story of Nicolas Bourbaki, the Genius Mathematician Who Never Existed, 2007. High Stakes Publishing, London. ISBN: 1-84344-034-2.
- The Jesuit and the Skull: Teilhard de Chardin, Evolution, and the Search for Peking Man, 2007. ISBN: 978-1-594-48956-3
- Uranium Wars: The Scientific Rivalry that Created the Nuclear Age, 2009. ISBN: 978-0-230-61374-4
- The Cave and the Cathedral: How a Real-Life Indiana Jones and a Renegade Scholar Decoded the Ancient Art of Man, 2009. ISBN: 978-0-470-37353-8
- A Strange Wilderness: The Lives of the Great Mathematicians, 2011. ISBN: 978-1-4027-8584-9
- Why Science Does Not Disprove God, 2014. ISBN: 978-0-062-23061-4
- Finding Zero, 2015. ISBN: 978-1-137-27984-2
