Prof Hannah Fry appointed as first professor of the public understanding of mathematics at University of Cambridge

Hannah Fry will be the first professor of the public understanding of mathematics at the University of Cambridge from 1 January.

Prof Fry follows in the footsteps of giants of public engagement with mathematics, including David Spiegelhalter and the late Stephen Hawking, as she joins the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP). The brief includes a requirement to engage with audiences not necessarily interested in mathematics.

The inaugural mathematician is also a best-selling author, award-winning science presenter and host of popular podcasts and television shows won the Christopher Zeeman Medal for promoting mathematics in 2018 and the Royal Society David Attenborough Award in 2024, and is the current President of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications.

“I’m really looking forward to joining the Cambridge community,” says Prof Fry, “to those chance encounters and interactions that end up sparking new ideas and collaborations: it’s so exciting to be in an environment where every single person you speak to is working on something absolutely fascinating.”

Her research applies to a wide range of social problems and questions, from shopping and transport to urban crime, riots and terrorism, and she has applied this research by advising and working alongside governments, police forces, supermarkets and health analysts.

“When you create a mathematical model, it doesn’t really matter how beautifully crafted your equations are, or how accurate your simulations are,” she says, “you have to think about how the work you’ve created is going to be seen and perceived by other people and how it’s going to be understood or misunderstood.”

She adds: “Communication is not an optional extra: if you are creating something that is used by, or interacts with members of the public or the world in general, then I think it’s genuinely your moral duty to engage the people affected by it,”

“Hannah is an outstanding mathematician and researcher, and one of the UK’s best maths communicators,” said Professor Colm-cille Caulfield, head of DAMTP. “Mathematics affects so many aspects of our everyday lives in interesting and exciting ways, and Hannah will strengthen the excellent work already being done at Cambridge in this area.

“We in DAMTP and our Faculty of Mathematics colleagues in the Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics are so excited to have her join us.”