Charles Seife is an American author, journalist, and professor at New York University. He has written extensively on scientific and mathematical topics.

Career

Seife holds a mathematics degree from Princeton University (1993),^[1] an M.S. in mathematics from Yale University and a M.S. in journalism from Columbia University.^[2]

Seife wrote for Science magazine and New Scientist before joining the Department of Journalism at New York University where he became a professor.^[2]

Books

His first and best-known published book is Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea (Viking, 2000).^[3]

Another well-known book from Seife is Proofiness: How You're Being Fooled By the Numbers (Penguin, 2010).^[4] Here, Seife focuses on how much propaganda uses numbers worded in such a way that they confuse people and can be misinterpreted.^[5]

Other books by Seife are:

• Alpha & Omega: The Search for the Beginning and End of the Universe, Penguin Putnam, 2003. ISBN 0-670-03179-8
• Decoding the Universe, Penguin, 2007. ISBN 978-0-14-303839-9
• Sun in a Bottle: The Strange History of Fusion and the Science of Wishful Thinking, Viking, 2008. ISBN 978-0-670-02033-1^[6]
• Virtual Unreality: Just Because the Internet Told You, How Do You Know It's True?, Penguin Putnam, 2014. ISBN 0-670-02608-5^[7]
• Hawking Hawking: The Selling of a Scientific Celebrity, Basic Books, 2021. ISBN 9781541618374^[8]

Other writing

Seife's freelance work has appeared in The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Scientific American, and The Economist, among others.^[2] Throughout his career, he has written many book reviews, especially of books which focus on mathematics.

Professional associations

Seife is a member of PEN, the National Association of Science Writers, and the D.C. Science Writers Association.^{[citation needed]}

Awards

• 2001 PEN/Martha Albrand Award for First Nonfiction for Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea