Joseph Mazur

New York, May 22, 2005: Mazur’s “Euclid in the Rainforest” is chosen as one of two Finalist for PEN/Martha Albrand Award for First Nonfiction. In Euclid and the Rainforest, Joseph Mazur brilliantly explores the symbiotic relationship between the physical and the mathematical worlds. He asks the questions: How do we know that the world is what we experience it to be? Can logic guide us through the rainforest of science and math and provide us with a chance to discover the underlying foundations for their truths? In his highly original search, Mazur is a brilliant forester whose graceful pursuit leads him to understand the logical bases of human reason. Mazur has given us a stylish and seductive book that convinces the mind even as it delights the soul.

On March 25, 2008 the paperback version of The Motion Paradox was released. It is retitled Zeno's Paradox.

On April 5, 2006 Mazur was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship to research and write a memoir about his life in mathematics. The Fellowship includes writers, playwrights painters, scuptors in humanities.

From the Guggenheim Foundation April 6, 2006 press release:

What distinguishes the Guggenheim Fellowship program from all others is the wide range of interest, age, geography, and institution of those it selects as it considers applications in 78 different fields, from the natural sciences to the creative arts. The new Fellows include writers, playwright, painters, sculptors, photographers, filmmakers, choreographers, physical and biological scientists, social scientists, and scholars in the humanities.

Notable Guggenheim fellows include Ansel Adams, Aaron Copland, Martha Graham, Langston Hughes, Henry Kissinger, Vladimir Nabokov, Isamu Noguchi, Linus Pauling, Philip Roth, Paul Samuelson, Wendy Wasserstein, Derek Walcott, James Watson and Eudora Welty.

Mazur says: “I’m still stunned and just recovering from last year’s surprise of being a PEN Finalist. This is a great honor, but one that could not have happened without my 33 years of teaching and learning from so many bright students and encouraging faculty at Marlboro College. In particular, I want to thank Mary White and her immensely competent library staff for their gracious help with my quirky requisitions. I would especially like to thank my dear friend Laura Stevenson of Marlboro College for reading an early draft of my 'Euclid in the Rainforest' manuscript and suggesting that I apply to Guggenheim.”