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The Euler Book Prize is awarded annually to an author or authors of an outstanding book about mathematics. The Prize is intended to recognize authors of exceptionally well written books with a positive impact on the public's view of mathematics and to encourage the writing of such books. Eligible books include mathematical monographs at the undergraduate level, histories, biographies, works of fiction, poetry; collections of essays, and works on mathematics as it is related to other areas of arts and sciences. To be considered for the Euler Prize a book must be published during the five years preceding the award and must be in English. The Euler book prize is $2,000.

The Euler Book Prize was established in 2005 and first given in 2007, the 300th anniversary of the birth of Leonhard Euler. This award also honors Virginia and Paul Halmos whose generosity made the award possible. The award is given every year at a national meeting of the Association.

MAA members may recommend books to be considered for the Euler Prize by completing the brief survey here.

Past Recipients

2023

Susan D’Agostino
How to Free Your Inner Mathematician: Notes on Mathematics and Life, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 2020.

2022

Allison K. Henrich, Emille Davie Lawrence, Matthew A. Pons, David Taylor (editors)
Living Proof: Stories of Resilience Along the Mathematical Journey, 2019. A joint publication of the Mathematical Association of America and the American Mathematical Society.

2021

Francis Su and Christopher JacksonMathematics for Human Flourishing, with reflections by Christopher Jackson, Yale University Press (2020)

2020

Tim Chartier, Math Bytes, Princeton University Press (2014)

2019

Cathy O’Neil, Weapons of Math Destruction, Crown (2016)

2018

Matt Parker, Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension, Farrar, Straus and Giroux (2014)

2017

Ian Stewart, In Pursuit of the Unknown: 17 Equations that Changed the World (Basic Books, New York, 2012)

2016

Jordan Ellenberg, How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking (The Penguin Press, New York, 2014)

2015

Edward Frenkel, Love and Math: The Heart of Hidden Reality (Basic Books,New York 2013)

2014

Steven Strogatz, The Joy of x: A Guided Tour of Math, from One to Infinity (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012)

2013

Persi Diaconis and Ron Graham, Magical Mathematics: The Mathematical Ideas that Animate Great Magic Tricks (Princeton University Press, 2011)

2012

Daina Taimiņa, Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes (AK Peters; 2009)

2011

Timothy Gowers, The Princeton Companion to Mathematics, Princeton University Press, 2008.

2010

David S. Richeson, Euler’s Gem: The Polyhedron Formula and the Birth of Topology, Princeton University Press, 2008.

2009

Siobhan Roberts, King of Infinite Space: Donald Coxeter, the Man Who Saved Geometry, Walker and Company, New York, 2006.

2008

Benjamin H. Yandell, The Honors Class. Hilbert’s Problems and Their Solvers, AK Peters, Natick, MA, 2002.

2007

John Derbyshire, Prime Obsession: Bernhard Riemann and the Greatest Unsolved Problem in Mathematics, Joseph Henry Press (National Academies Press), 2003.