How to Bake Pi

Eugenia Cheng, mathematician and author of the popular mathematics book How to Bake Pi: An Edible Exploration of the Mathematics of Mathematics, visited the Suzy Newhouse Center for the Humanities at Wellesley College on March 1 to demonstrate math with music, juggling, and edible examples.

Cheng is the scientist in residence at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, an honorary fellow of the University of Sheffield, and an honorary visiting fellow of City University, London. Her research is in category theory, but she is happy to discuss any aspect of mathematics to bring the subject to a wider audience and make it more approachable to non-mathematicians. Her book has been translated into six languages.

Cheng is also an accomplished pianist and the founder of the Liederstube, a Chicago performance program that provides a venue for the presentation and enjoyment of classical music in an intimate and informal setting.