Michael Starbird

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Michael P. Starbird is a Professor of Mathematics and a University of Texas Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Texas at Austin. He received his B.A from Pomona College and his Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Dr. Starbird’s mathematical specialty is topology. He joined the University of Texas at Austin as a faculty member in 1974, and served as an associate dean in Natural Sciences from 1989 to 1997. He serves on the national education committees of the Mathematical Association of America and the American Mathematical Society.

He has accepted visiting positions at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, The University of California at San Diego, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. From 1989 to 1997, Professor Starbird served as Associate Dean of The College of Natural Sciences. He is a member of the Academy of Distinguished Teachers.

Dr. Starbird seeks to make sophisticated mathematics accessible to the public. His recent book, The Heart of Mathematics: An Invitation to Effective Thinking, coauthored with Edward B. Burger, was acclaimed by the American Mathematical Monthly as possibly the best math book for nonmathematicians it had ever reviewed. The book won a 2001 Robert W. Hamilton Book Award.