Celebrities and Math

Photo by Jens Schott Knudsen. The work is distributed under a Creative Commons License.

I always enjoy seeing mathematics in pop culture. When a friend of mine sent me a txt message about an article talking about celebrities who enjoyed mathematics, I was all over it. (Tangent – The title of the article, 10 Secret Celebrity Math Geeks, is a bit indicative of the societal attitude towards mathematicians. It is sad that folks who enjoy math need to be “secret.”) The celebrities included on this list were:

1. Danica McKellar (The Wonder Years)
2. Mayim Bialik (Blossom)
3. Lisa Kudrow (Friends)
4. Huey Lewis (Musician)
5. Montel Williams (Talk show host)
6. Terrence Howard (Hustle & Flow, Iron Man)
7. Dr. Dan Grimaldi (The Sopranos)
8. Art Garfunkel (Musician)
9. Cindy Crawford (Actress and supermodel)
10. Tom Hands (Actor)

There are other lists around the internet of celebrities who have excelled in STEM fields as well (a quick Google search will give you many results). I wish this was more well-known to fans, especially younger students who are interested in STEM areas but afraid of being socially outcast due to their “geeky” interests. There is a shortage of females in the STEM fields and many theories on why this may be. (The diversity of practitioners in STEM fields will be saved for another post.)

My wish, though, is that students of all ages, genders, races, etc., who are interested in STEM fields, will set aside the stigma and explore the topics that truly interest them. I also wish that celebrities who are interested in these fields will publicly “make a big deal” out of what is happening in these fields. Maybe this will help with people understanding, it is okay to be a little geeky – study what you enjoy.