About the Author

Bruce Schechter holds a Ph.D. in physics from M.I.T. and is a former editor at Physics Today and a former staff writer at Discover. He is the author of The Path of No Resistance, a book about superconductivity

Reviews

Doug Wyatt Savannah Morning News Schechter, with insight, considerable affection, and high humor, admirably intertwines accounts of [Erd�s's] bizarre life with an appreciation of his remarkable achievements.

K.C. Cole author of The Universe and the Teacup: The Mathematics of Truth and Beauty With affection, insight, and humor, Bruce Schechter invites us into the wacky world of mathematical genius Paul Erd�s -- one of the strangest characters to inhabit the world of science. Schechter does an admirably agile job of interweaving real mathematics with the far side of human nature.

Russ Cardwell The Post and Courier (Charleston, SC) My Brain Is Open is a lively romp through Erd�s' globe-trotting life and into the surreal, exclusive club of the world's great mathematicians.

Michael Hopkins Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Bruce Schechter pulls back the curtain on the peculiar life of the world's most prolific mathematician....We feel so connected to this obsessed gentleman that we regret never having met him.

Doug Wyatt Savannah Morning News Schechter, with insight, considerable affection, and high humor, admirably intertwines accounts of [Erdos's] bizarre life with an appreciation of his remarkable achievements.
K.C. Cole author of The Universe and the Teacup: The Mathematics of Truth and Beauty With affection, insight, and humor, Bruce Schechter invites us into the wacky world of mathematical genius Paul Erdos -- one of the strangest characters to inhabit the world of science. Schechter does an admirably agile job of interweaving real mathematics with the far side of human nature.
Russ Cardwell The Post and Courier (Charleston, SC) My Brain Is Open is a lively romp through Erdos' globe-trotting life and into the surreal, exclusive club of the world's great mathematicians.
Michael Hopkins Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Bruce Schechter pulls back the curtain on the peculiar life of the world's most prolific mathematician....We feel so connected to this obsessed gentleman that we regret never having met him.

Written by a former editor at Physics Today, this is the second book published recently about Paul Erdos, the unique research mathematician who was amazingly productive despite a number of famous eccentricities. It is considerably better organized than Paul Hoffman's The Man Who Loved Only Numbers (LJ 7/98) and provides more actual mathematical content, which can be understood by interested lay readers. Although Schechter's book gives due attention to Erdos's unusual lifestyle and pet verbal expressions, it manages to keep them in perspective. Occasionally, the author goes rather far off course in relating anecdotes about other mathematicians not necessarily closely connected to Erdos. However, his is the best biography of the mathematician currently available and as such is recommended for all academic libraries and all but the smallest public libraries.‘Jack W. Weigel, Univ. of Michigan Lib., Ann Arbor