Famous Ex-Math Geeks
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Reverend Ralph Abernathy - Famous civil rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr.'s closest aide, his house and church were burned in Montgomery, Alabama, member of Kappa Alpha Psi, math major.
Corazon "Cory" Aquino - Former President of the Phillipines, quit her math studies at the College of Mount Saint Vincent to marry her husband Ninoy, his assassination led to her becoming the first female president of the Phillipines in 1983, she also studied French.
Harry Blackmun - Former US Supreme Court Justice, graduated Summa Cum Laude (in math) from Harvard in 1929, authored Roe vs. Wade.
Pierre Boulez - Modernist composer and conductor, schooled in math in France at Lyon, began college at 16, conducted/directed NY, Vienna, Los Angeles and Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras (among others).
Clifford Brown - 1930-1956, Jazz Musician, "Brownie," simultaneously studied Math at University of Delaware and Music at Maryland State University.
Lewis Carroll - 1832-1898, Authored "Alice in Wonderland," coined the words jabberwocky and chortle, real name - Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, logician, mathematical lecturer at Oxford for 26 years, wrote "A Syllabus of Plane Algebraical Geometry" and "Euclid and His Modern Rivals," also took deacon's orders and had photography for a hobby.
Noam Chomsky - Prominent modern linguist, commentator and historian of American Foreign Policy, studied math at University of Pennsylvania.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge - 1772-1834, poet, wrote "Fall of Robespierre," "Remorse" and "Lyrical Ballads," studied math at Jesus College in Cambridge, also studied Greek, medicine and metaphysics.
David Dinkins - Former mayor of NY City, has a BA in Math from Howard, returned to the classroom in 1995, but teaches politics at Columbia instead of math.
Max Euwe - PhD in Math from Amsterdam University, World Class Chess Player from 1935-1937, President of FIDE (World Chess Federation), learned chess at age 4, ELO rating 2660, also an amateur boxer.
Chico Freeman - Jazz musician from Chicago started as a math major at Northwestern (on scholarship), played with Temptations, Four Tops, Isley Brothers, Eurythmics, now has an electro-acoustic band called "Brainstorm."
Alberto Fujimori - President of Peru, MS in Math from University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, called "Fujimori Enigma," "Man From Nowhere" and "President Who Dared to Dream."
Art Garfunkel - Arthur Ira Garfunkel is a folk-rock singer and an actor (Catch-22 and Carnal Knowledge) who has an MA in Math from Columbia, started PhD work, taught math in Connecticut.
Philip Glass - Born in 1937 in Baltimore, this composer of "Music in 12 Parts" and "Einstein on the Beach" has a bachelor's in math from the University of Chicago, he has written music for the films "A Brief History of Time" and "Candyman."
Ira Glasser - Executive Director of the ACLU, BA and MS (Ohio State) in math, writes "A Vision of Liberty" cyber-column, taught at Queens College and Sarah Lawrence College.
Costa Gomes - President of Portugal from 1974-1976, math degree from Oporto University, been in NATO, currently Portugal's Marshal of armed forces.
Teri Hatcher - Star of "Lois and Clark," Penny Parker on "McGuyver," been in "007 Tomorrow Never Dies," "Heaven's Prisoners," "Soapdish" and "Tango and Cash," has 1 tortoise, 2 dogs and 3 cats, studied mathematics and engineering at DeAnza College.
Werner Heisenberg - 1901-1976, Nobel Prize Winning Physicist, founder of quantum mechanics, famous principle, joined physics department because dog sleeping under math chairs bit him during interview, quote - "I learned optimism from Sommerfeld, mathematics at Gottingen and physics from Bohr."
Heloise - Ponce Cruse Evans, "Hints from Heloise" writer with dog Savvi, was a math minor at Southwest Texas State University, set out to be a math teacher before discovering the fine art of column writing.
Edmund Husserl - Father of Phenomenology, PhD in 1883 under Weierstrass, studied at University of Berlin and University of Vienna, Phenomenologists believe in the opposition of acceptance of the unobservable and oppose naturalism and justify cognition.
Davey Johnson - Manager of the Dodgers, math degree from Trinity University, has the top winning percentage among active managers.
Michael Jordan - Basketball superstar, changed majors his junior year, favorite subject in school was always math, also starred in "Space Jam."
Theodore Kaczynski - The Unabomber, Masters/PhD in math from University of Michigan, studied complex analysis, assistant professor at Berkeley, works include: "Another Proof of Wedderburn's Theorem," "Boundary Functions For Functions Defined in a Disk," "On a Boundary Property of Continuous Functions," "Note on a Problem of Alan Sutcliffe," "Boundary Functions for Bounded Harmonic Functions" and of course, the Unabomber Manifesto.
John Maynard Keynes - Great economist, MA in math from Cambridge, studied probability theory, wrote "Treatise on Probability."
Omar Khayyam - Author of "The Rubaiyat," full name is Ghiyath al-Din Abul-Fath Umar ibn Ibrahim Al-Nisaburi al-Khayyami, al-Khayyami means "tent-maker," wrote "Problems of Arithmetic" before he was 25, he calculated the length of the year with an incredible accuracy, did you know the length of the year is shrinking?, solved cubic equations by means of intersecting conic sections, first to realize that a cubic could have more than one solution and demonstrated that at least two were possible, wrote "Commentaries on the Difficult Postulates of Euclid's Book," in this, he accidentally proved some properties of figures in non-euclidean geometries.
Emanuel Lasker - World Chess Champion, highest winning percentage of any world chess player (66%), ELO - 2720, wrote "Primary Ideal Decomposition Theorem in Commutative Algebra," studied math at several German universities, was a student of Hilbert, received his PhD in math in 1920, a study by Binet states that while some 90% of chess players are very good at math, very few mathematicians become chess players, other math chess players: Adolf Anderssen, Noam Elkies, Lev Loshinski, A. Jonathan Mestel, Walter Morris and John Nunn.
Tom Lehrer - Songwriter of the 50's and 60's, PhD student in math at Harvard, Songs: "There's a Delta for Every Epsilon," "The Professor's Song," "New Math" and "The Derivative Song," taught at MIT, Harvard and Wellesley, worked at Los Alamos and was in the army briefly.
Danica McKellar - Winnie on "The Wonder Years," shared her first kiss with Fred Savage, but her true love is MATH :) She went back to school and graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of California at Los Angeles, also, she recently co-wrote a math research paper.
J. P. Morgan - James Pierpont Morgan, magnate, banking, steel and railroad tycoon, excellent at mathematics, some of the Goettingen faculty tried to convince him to become a professional mathematician.
James Moriarty - Created by Sir Authur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes' nemesis was a math professor.
Florence Nightingale - Pioneer in nursing, first person in the english-speaking world to apply statistics to public health, inventor of the pie chart.
Larry Niven - Science Fiction Writer, studied math at Washburn University, winner of Nebula and Hugo Awards, author of "The Coldest Place," "Ringworld" and "Integral Trees," co-authored "Footfall," "Mote In God's Eye" and "Lucifer's Hammer" with Jerry Pournelle.
Paul Painleve - Prime Minister of France in the early 20th century, PhD in Math in Paris is 1887, studied Differential Equations and Mechanics, was Wilbur Wright's first passenger, interested in aviation, created the first aeronautical math course.
William Perry - Ex-Secretary of Defense, PhD in Math from Penn State, thesis advisor from Stanford was George Polya (famous for work in series, number theory, combinatorics, probability and PDEs).
David Robinson - "The Admiral," basketball player for the Spurs, BS in math from US Naval Academy, only male bball star to go to three olympics, narrarated a performance math package for grade schoolers.
Carl Rowan - degree in Math from Oberlin, syndicated columnist, Black Journalists Hall of Fame, Peabody Award, written eight books.
Frank Ryan - star quarterback for Cleveland Browns (1962-1968), PhD in topology from Rice University, leader in passing touchdowns.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn - Nobel Prize Winning Novelist, degree in Math and Physics, University of Rostov, "The Gulag Archipelago," "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich," famous quote - "Own only what you can always carry with you: know languages, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag."
Stephen Sondheim - Famous lyricist, written songs for Tony Bennett, for the movies "Dick Tracy" and "Birdcage," for the musicals "Gypsy" and "West Side Story," started out as a math major until he had a class with Oscar Hammerstein (Hammerstein and Rodgers).
Bram Stoker - Author of Dracula, honors student in math at Trinity University, Dublin, also overcame physical disabilities to become an athletics champ in school.
Edward Thorp - Inventor of the first card-counting system for Black Jack, author of "Beat The Dealer," one of the inventors of program trading on Wall Street, professor of Math at University of California at Irvine, also wrote "Elementary Probability."
Leon Trotsky - Lev Davidovich Bronstein, revolutionary in Russia, studied pure math at Odessa, career in math cut short by imprisonment and exile in Siberia.
Eamon De Valera - "Dev," prime minister of Ireland, math teacher and university lecturer, attended Royal University at Dublin.
Paul Verhoeven - Director of "Robocop," "Basic Instinct," "Starship Troopers," "Total Recall" and "Showgirls," studied math and physics at the University of Leiden.
Virginia Wade - Wimbledon Champion, 1977, BS in math and physics from Sussex, Great Britain's greatest tennis player ever. 1968 US Champ, 1972 Australian Open Champ, third on all-time tennis victory list with a total of 55 pro singles titles.
Ludwig Wittgenstein - 20th Century Philosopher, studied math logic with Bertrand Russell in Cambridge, his first project was a study of kites in the upper atmosphere, great works are "Tractatus" and "Philosophical Investigations," was also a lecturer at Cambridge.
James Woods - Famous Actor, math major at MIT until he took a Number Theory course, studied linear algebra at UCLA while still in high school, IQ - 180, SAT score 1579, movies - "The Getaway," "The Specialist," "Nixon" and "The General's Daughter."
Frank Zane - Three time Mr. Olympia, Mr. World, Mr. Universe, dedicated to health, fitness, well-being, power, strength and muscle. Specializing in symmetry and classical proportions. Discovered body building when he walked into a high school math class and saw a magazine in the trash, taught math in PA, NJ and CA.

  Last Modified on Thursday, November 11, 1999.