New and Noteworthy Titles on our Bookshelf

How to Be Creative: A Practical Guide for the Mathematical Sciences

Society for Industrial & Applied Mathematics, 2022, 109 pp.

By Nicholas J. Higham and Dennis Sherwood

How do you define creativity in mathematics? I often refer to creativity as an essential quality of a mathematician but would be hard-pressed to write down a definition. I’m so glad I read this book! The content was born out of a workshop about creativity run by Dennis Sherwood and attended by Nick Higham. The duo has since run a handful of creativity workshops before turning the activities into this book. The authors describe this book as “a how-to guide to help you generate great ideas.” It begins by detailing a six-step process to formulate ideas and includes many other helpful creativity-inducing techniques. The book then discusses what creativity in mathematics looks like. By making the procedure explicit, the authors help demystify the creative process and invite interested researchers into our field even if they feel they don’t know where to start. As many of us know, mathematical research does not all have to occur as spontaneous, brilliant ideas (as often portrayed in movies, television, and the media) but can be intentional and methodical.

This brief yet effective book also includes information about running your own creativity workshops and a process to evaluate the ideas generated. The structures offered can work with groups of collaborators or individual researchers. The questions also do not have to be all mathematical! Some examples in the book are about problem-solving within a department or college. Consider providing it for your students as they embark on research, either in graduate school or as part of an REU. I imagine that faculty, postdocs, graduate and undergraduate students, department chairs, and administrators could all learn something about the creative process by reading this book.

The Visual Elements—Design: A Handbook for Communicating Science and Engineering

University of Chicago Press, 2024, 208 pp.

By Felice C. Frankel

Cover is courtesy of the University of Chicago.

If you are not sure what a visual design text is doing in this Bookshelf column, allow me to elucidate. I was first intrigued when Frankel stated in the Introduction that “knowing how to design a figure, a journal cover, and a poster or slide presentation should be part of every researcher’s education.” Unfortunately, it seems that designing figures, posters, slides, and other visual media is left out of most mathematics graduate school curriculums. I became more convinced of the need for this book when Frankel listed reasons why one should spend time designing visual representations; among others, she says it can attract attention to your work, make your work accessible to the public, encourage connections and collaborations, and clarify your thinking.

The book has two primary agendas; it is both a list of best practices for creating visual components of your research, especially for journals or presentations, and a showcase of the importance of iteration in the design process. The latter is made clear through before-and-after images of designs. I do not think you need to consider yourself artistic to want to improve your figures, posters, or presentations. As many of her examples come from the sciences, I could see a mathematical biologist, chemist, or physicist utilizing these tips. However, I think people in all areas of mathematics could benefit, from knot theory to game theory to sports analytics to … your area of expertise! If you want to challenge your assumptions about what is good design, consider implementing the tips in this book.