Paulina Rowińska at the Harvard Science Center

Harvard Book Store, the Harvard University Division of Science, and the Harvard Library welcome Paulina Rowińska—Cambridge-based science writer and winner of the Austrian Science Book of the Year Award—for a discussion of her debut book Mapmatics: A Mathematician's Guide to Navigating the World. This event will take place at the Harvard Science Center Hall A, located at 1 Oxford St, Cambridge.

There are two ticket options available for this event. Following the presentation will be a reception and book signing in the Cabot Science Library across the hall from the presentation room.

Free General Admission Ticket: Includes admission for one.

Book-Included Ticket: Includes admission for one and one hardcover copy of Mapmatics.

Explore the surprising connections between math and maps—and the myriad ways they’ve shaped our world and us.
Why are coastlines and borders so difficult to measure? How does a UPS driver deliver hundreds of packages in a single day? And where do elusive serial killers hide? The answers lie in the crucial connection between maps and math.
In Mapmatics, mathematician Paulina Rowińska leads us on a riveting journey around the globe to discover how maps and math are deeply entwined, and always have been. From a sixteenth-century map, an indispensable navigation tool that exaggerates the size of northern countries, to public transport maps that both guide and confound passengers, to congressional maps that can empower or silence whole communities, she reveals how maps and math have shaped not only our sense of space but our worldview. In her hands, we learn how to read maps like a mathematician—to extract richer information and, just as importantly, to question our conclusions by asking what we don’t see.
Written with authority and compassion, wit and unforgettable storytelling, this is math exposition at its best. By unpacking the math behind the maps we depend on, Mapmatics illuminates how our world works and, ultimately, how we can better look after it.

Paulina Rowińska, winner of the Austrian Science Book of the Year Award, is a Cambridge-based science writer with a PhD in mathematics. After years of creating interactive math and data science content for the educational platform Brilliant, she began a master’s in science journalism at MIT last fall. Mapmatics is her first book.

Masks are encouraged but not required for this event.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Science Center, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge, United States