Ivars Peterson is an award-winning mathematics

Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...

 writer.
He is currently Director of Publications for Journals and Communications at the Mathematical Association of America

Mathematical Association of America

The Mathematical Association of America 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 and applied mathematicians; computer scientists;...

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He worked for 25 years as a columnist and online editor at Science News

Science News

Science News is an American bi-weekly magazine devoted to short articles about new scientific and technical developments, typically gleaned from recent scientific and technical journals. Science News has been published since 1922 by Society for Science & the Public, a non-profit organization...

and continues as a longstanding columnist for the children's magazine Muse

Muse (magazine)

Muse is a children's magazine published by the Smithsonian Institution and Carus Publishing, the publishers of Cricket. Launched in October 1996, it is published in Chicago, Illinois, and has readers throughout the United States and around the world. Recommended for ages ten and above, it features...

. He wrote the weekly online column Ivars Peterson’s MathTrek. He is the author of a number of popular mathematics and related books.

Ivars Peterson received the Joint Policy Board for Mathematics

Joint Policy Board for Mathematics

The Joint Policy Board for Mathematics consists of the American Mathematical Society, the American Statistical Association, the Mathematical Association of America, and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics....

 Communications Award in 1991 for "exceptional skill in communicating mathematics to the general public over the last decade".

For the spring 2008 semester, he accepted the Wayne G. Basler Chair of Excellence for the Integration of the Arts, Rhetoric and Science at East Tennessee State University

East Tennessee State University

East Tennessee State University is an accredited American university located in Johnson City, Tennessee. It is part of the Tennessee Board of Regents system of colleges and universities, the nation's sixth largest system of public education, and is the fourth largest university in the state...

. He gave a series of lectures on how math is integral in our society and our universe. He also taught a course entitled "Communicating Mathematics".