Eugenia Cheng facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Eugenia Cheng
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Cheng at Phi Beta Kappa society (En)Lightning Talks Chicago in 2016
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| Born |
Eugenia Loh-Gene Cheng
1 August 1976 Hampshire, England
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| Education | Roedean School | ||||||||||
| Alma mater | University of Cambridge (BA, PhD) | ||||||||||
| Known for | How to Bake Pi | ||||||||||
| Scientific career | |||||||||||
| Fields | Category theory Popular mathematics |
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| Thesis | Higher-dimensional category theory : opetopic foundations (2002) | ||||||||||
| Doctoral advisor | Martin Hyland | ||||||||||
| Chinese name | |||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 鄭樂雋 | ||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 郑乐隽 | ||||||||||
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Eugenia Loh-Gene Cheng is a British mathematician, teacher, and concert pianist. She is known for making mathematics fun and easy to understand. She often uses examples from cooking and baking to explain tricky math ideas. This helps people who might feel nervous about math. Eugenia Cheng is currently a scientist-in-residence at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Eugenia Cheng was born in Hampshire, England, in 1976. When she was one year old, her family moved to Sussex. Her family originally came from Hong Kong. Eugenia became interested in math at a young age. Her mother helped make math a part of her everyday life.
She went to Roedean School. Later, she studied mathematics at the University of Cambridge. She earned her PhD there in 2002.
Career and Research
Since 2020, Eugenia Cheng has been a scientist-in-residence at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. There, she teaches math to students who are studying art. Before this, she taught at other universities. These included the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis and the University of Sheffield.
She has written many research papers about a type of math called category theory. She also helps other students with their math research.
Explaining Math with Baking
Eugenia Cheng's main math interest is category theory. This is a branch of mathematics that looks at structures and relationships. She makes this complex topic easy to understand for everyone. She does this by using fun examples from baking. Her goal is to help people overcome their fear of math.
In her book, How to Bake Pi, published in 2015, each chapter starts with a recipe. These recipes help show how math and cooking use similar methods and ideas. The book was very popular and has been translated into other languages.
She has also written other papers with similar themes. For example, she wrote about "the perfect quantity of cream for a scone." She also explored math in a fun way in her speech "Mathematics and Lego: the untold story."
Other Books and Writing
Eugenia Cheng's second book, Beyond Infinity, came out in 2017. This book explains set theory to a general audience. Set theory is about collections of objects. She uses stories and examples to make it clear. This book was even nominated for a science book award.
In 2018, she published her third book, The Art of Logic in an Illogical World. In this book, she uses ideas from logic to look at real-world topics. These topics include same-sex marriage and police brutality in the United States. She explains important logic ideas like Russell's paradox and Euclid's axioms.
Cheng also writes a column called Everyday Math for The Wall Street Journal. In this column, she writes about topics like probability theory and how to solve a Rubik's Cube.
Music Performances
Eugenia Cheng is also a talented pianist. She specializes in lieder and art song. These are types of classical songs. She has won awards for her musical talent.
She has performed in many concerts. In Chicago, she gave recitals and performed with other musicians. She also founded the Liederstube in 2013. This is a place in Chicago where people can enjoy classical music in a relaxed setting. It is a non-profit organization.
Media Appearances
Eugenia Cheng has appeared on several TV and radio shows. In 2015, she was on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. She made a mille-feuille pastry with Stephen Colbert to show how exponentials work.
She has also been interviewed on radio shows like The Morning Shift on Chicago's Public Radio station WBEZ. In 2018, she was interviewed by Jim Al-Khalili for The Life Scientific on BBC Radio 4.
Books
- How to Bake Pi (2015)
- Beyond Infinity (2017)
- The Art of Logic in an Illogical World (2018)
- Bake Infinite Pie With X + Y (2022) (Illustrated by Amber Ren)
Recognition
Eugenia Cheng is recognized for her contributions to mathematics. She is featured in a special deck of playing cards. These cards highlight notable women mathematicians.
See also
In Spanish: Eugenia Cheng para niños
