Ben is a mathematician, musician, and public speaker. He gives maths talks and workshops around the world, to students, teachers, and the general public. He’s part freelance, part-time with the Advanced Maths Support Programme (AMSP) and part-time with the University of Bath where he teaches on the Communicating Maths course.
His performances include regular work with the Numberphile YouTube channel (run by Brady Haran – recently awarded the Zeeman Medal for Promotion of Maths) where his videos have been watched over 16 million times. He also runs his own YouTube channel SparksMaths.
He regularly performs live with the Maths Inspiration and MathsFest projects run by Rob Eastaway and Matt Parker.
Check out the events page to see where he’s speaking next. You can view info on how to book him here, and how to get in touch here.
Ben taught secondary maths for 10 years in various schools in England.
Notable performances/events include:
- Maths Inspiration shows (live and online) – 2011 to present
- DMN Maths Education Conference Odense, Denmark – Danish National Maths Education conference – Sep 2024
- Orkney Science Festival – Sep 2024
- The Curious Co-incidence of the Maths in the Daytime: National Theatre Collaboration with Maths Inspiration on the set of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime hit west-end show.
Gielgud Theatre – London, November 2016,
Milton Keynes, September 2017,
Melbourne, Australia February 2018,
Sydney, Australia, July 2018 - MathsFest – 2016 to present
- National Annual Maths Education conferences: MA Conference (keynote and workshops), MEI Conference (after dinner speaker and workshops), BCME conferences, Joint MA/ATM conferences
- China – Dulwich International High School – March 2019
- Norway – Trondheim NTNU – May 2019
- San Francisco – Nueva School Conference & Celebration of Mind at MSRI (Berkeley) – October 2019
Mathematics
Ben has a BA (Hons) in Mathematical Sciences from Merton College, Oxford and an MSc in Mathematical Modelling and Scientific Computing, from Somerville College, Oxford. He occasionally wonders about doing a PhD, but isn’t quite sure he’d cope with all the sitting down.
Teaching
He trained as a secondary maths teacher with a PGCE at Oxford University Department of Education, and has taught at the King’s School, Oxfordshire, Poole Grammar School, Dorset and Canford School, Dorset. He sometimes teaches online for the MEI’s Advanced Maths Support Programme, and also runs professional development for teachers, in person and via their Live Online Professional Development programme.
Speaking and Performing
Ben speaks regularly at schools, student conferences, and at teacher conferences, as part of his AMSP role, and in a freelance capacity.
He’s often working alongside Maths Inspiration (Rob Eastaway) and Think Maths (Matt Parker, Zoe Griffiths).
Ben also regularly works with Brady Haran on the Numberphile videos on YouTube. (Ben’s videos here)
He’s been involved with the Maths Busking project, and helped Maths Inspiration and Maths On Screen deliver maths enrichment DVDs for year 10 audiences. Have a look at the Talks page to see what sort of things he does.
Other stuff
In the increasingly small amounts of time not already accounted for Ben likes to dabble in music and photography and will sometimes be found busking on his guitar in a town centre he likes the look of.
He says it keeps him off the streets.
Interview in Belgrade for part of the 2017 May Month of Mathematics
