NEW VIDEO: The Kissing Coins Problem - what is the smallest circle that encloses three touching coins? Premieres today at 4pm (GMT). See you in the live chat!

Fascinating conversations with some of the greatest minds in Mathematics and Physics at the HKLF - what a couple of days it's been! 1. Reinhard Genzel (2008 Shaw Prize & 2020 Nobel Prize) 2. Nigel J Hitchin (2016 Shaw Prize) 3. John Peacock (2014 Shaw Prize) 4. Simon D M White (2017 Shaw Prize)

Back at the Hong Kong Laureate Forum to interview 4 Shaw Laureates over the next few days. Love visiting this city, especially the harbour - just look at that skyline <3 With a population of 7.5 million and occupied apartment space of 112.5 million m2, how big is the average apartment per person?

Sigiriya, Sri Lanka. An ancient rock fortress built in the 5th Century. The hydrodynamic system connecting the water gardens is phenomenal, not to mention the lions paw, and views at the top of the 1200 steps. If I climb 90 steps per minute, how long does it take me to get to the top?

Dambulla Cave Temple - a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1991. The temple dates back over 2000 years and contains painted murals over an area of 2100 square metres. The largest cave has dimensions of approximately 50m x 20m x 3m, so can it all be painted?

Making new friends at Kaudulla National Park in Sri Lanka. A 2008 study by the University of Tokyo showed elephants are capable of adding together small numbers by counting apples and selecting the bucket with more in. I knew there was a reason they are my favourite animal <3

Hello Sri Lanka! Had a lot of fun exploring Colombo and seeing the sights. The mix of architectural styles from colonial Portuguese, Dutch and British, alongside buildings influenced by Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam, plus modern skyscrapers, really is spectacular. Any other influences I’m missing?

Happy Halloween Maths Fans!! I promise only to haunt your dreams with scary mathematical puzzles… Can you work out which one is me in each photo?

HERE ARE YOUR STUDENT WINNER[S] I couldn't decide between my favourite two essays so have selected them both as joint-winners of the 2025 TRM Essay Competition. Congratulations to Amelia Tan and John Winmill-Briggs for their winning essays "A Tangent about Tangents" and "Coprime by Chance". Enjoy!

Very excited to announce we will be running the Vice-Chancellor's Colloquium on Climate for a third successive year @ox.ac.uk, including some maths sessions from yours truly. Open to all current Oxford undergraduates - register your interest here: lifelong-learning.ox.ac.uk/about/the-vi...

Some highlights from my Comedy Show at the Oxford Science and Ideas Festival on Sunday evening. Award-winning research has never looked so ridiculous! Thanks to everyone that came along for laughing at my jokes… even the bad ones.

Halloween is nearing, and Serious Academics need to celebrate. Here's the @oxlifelonglearning.bsky.social undead team - @tomrocksmaths.bsky.social, @jonathanhealey.bsky.social and myself - doing what academics do best: ghosting you. 👻🎃 🧪 #AcademicSky

NEW VIDEO: Round 11 of Numbers vs. Words 23 from @tomrocksmaths.bsky.social s vs. Beck and Call from @susiedent.com. The birthday paradox against linguistic fossils - which is your favourite? Cast your vote here: forms.gle/qVFpFqzTkEkF...

According ot these lovely shots from the @cs50.harvard.edu Puzzle Day, I must be hilarious. Which is good news, as I'm doing a comedy show at the Oxford Bullingdon this Sunday (26/10) delving into the world of "award-winning research". Come along if you're free and hopefully learn a thing or two :)

Having a blast in Belfast! The perfect way to end my tour of Northern Ireland for Maths Week. Thanks to PWC and ​⁠Queen’s University Belfast‬ for hosting in such spectacular venues - until next time :)

Don't miss your chance to sign up for the Vice-Chancellor's Colloquium on Climate or AI! 🔗 Find out more: buff.ly/rcptHnK #OxfordUniversity #StudyAtOxford #Oxford #Colloquium #AI #Climate

LOOK AT THAT VIEW. The library tower ​⁠​⁠at St Edmund Hall‬ is the perfect place to spend an afternoon writing about Pokemon battles for my upcoming book on Fantasy Mathematics. What are your favourite type matchups from the games?

After 10 rounds and the first set of videos, Words and @susiedent.com retain the lead at 6-4 with a victory for 'thing' over the amicable 220. Fortunately for Numbers, we've recorded 10 more, so the competition is very much still on. And this time, we're bringing the A-team... Round 11 coming soon!

Thank you to everyone for coming along to the first-ever performance of my new talk “How To Insure A Hobbit” at New Scientist Live. From random walks through Moria to the unexpected hanging paradox, the maths of life insurance has never been so fun!

NEW VIDEO: Pat Hanrahan (2019 Turing Award) looks back on his career as a pioneer of Computer graphics, including the beginning of Pixar, and winning 3 Academy Awards (aka Oscars). Premieres today at 5pm (GMT+1) - see you in the live chat!

Another fantastic day visiting schools across Northern Ireland for Maths Week. Let’s see how much plastic we can remove from local rivers by working together - and using maths to guide us :)

NEW VIDEO: lecturers @ox.ac.uk are so serious... Thanks to @oxlifelonglearning.bsky.social for producing such an excellent video! Find out more about online courses available to YOU here: lifelong-learning.ox.ac.uk

Having a blast in Northern Ireland for Maths Week - and what a venue at Derry Guildhall! 450 students and 3 Peace Prizes. The scenery in nearby Sperrin was also beautiful, if a little cloudy… I love being able to visit new places and share the enjoyment of maths :)

An absolute honour to be admitted as a Fellow ​⁠​⁠at Robinson College last night. Thank you to everyone at Robinson for seeing the value in my work, and for making me feel so welcome ​⁠​⁠at the University of Cambridge. I can’t wait to see what amazing things we can achieve together!

The adult (over-18) winner in the 2025 Tom Rocks Maths Essay Competition with @oxlifelonglearning.bsky.social is... "Can you draw every flag in powerpoint?" by Taewon 'Zye' Ham. HUGE congratulations!! Read the essay in full at the link below. Simply brilliant :)

Academics: We're overworked, underpaid and unappreciated. Academics at @oxlifelonglearning.bsky.social: I spent the afternoon in a bedsheet, being a ghost. That's it. That's what @tomrocksmaths.bsky.social, @jonathanhealey.bsky.social and I are paid to do. Things won't get better. #AcademicSky

NEW VIDEO: Numbers vs. Words Round 10 - 220 vs. Thing Round 10 sees Amicable Numbers 220 & 284 from @tomrocksmaths.bsky.social up against 'Thing' and "semantic bleaching" from @susiedent.com. Watch and then vote for your favourite here: forms.gle/JnqfdB54siEj...

A sneak peek of a photoshoot from earlier this week with @oxlifelonglearning.bsky.social - any idea what we are doing?

My favourite way to spend a Friday evening - solving puzzles with friends at CS50 and Meta. Thank you to everyone for coming to the first CS50 UK Puzzle Day and to Meta London for hosting :)

You all loved SMILE = 1,913,091,205 this time around helping Numbers pull one back against Words. Latest scores are now @tomrocksmaths.bsky.social / Numbers 4 - 5 Words / @susiedent.com. It’s getting close again so make sure you vote for your favourite in round 10, coming soon!!

Graduate Dinner 2025 at St Edmund Hall with pre-dinner drinks in the college library (a converted church). A warm welcome to the University of Oxford to all Masters and PhD students - may your years here be enjoyable, academic, and of course as full of maths as possible!

Such an incredible day at King’s School Macclesfield meeting all of the amazing students / future mathematicians. We talked Sports and Shapes with year 6, 7 and 8; the Maths of Pokémon with years 10 and 11; and Ocean Pollution with years 12 and 13. I hope you all had as much fun as I did!!

ICYMI don't forget to watch part 1 of my collaboration with Dr PK Math where he solves a 7x7 determinant, and then watch part 2 where I solve a ridiculous problem with the most unexpected pi possible... Part 2 is here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJxa...

NEW VIDEO: Listen to 5x short talks from 5x Laureates covering Cryptography, Parallel Computing, Coding Mathematical Proofs, Constraint Problems and Programming Bugs, with yours truly as moderator. Enjoy :) Watch here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeRg...

Writing retreat done right. Thank you Jamaica for the inspiration and the 60,000 words of mathematical shenanigans that form the basis of my book. If you look closely you might spot a few sneak previews on my laptop… Excited to bring this to you all in 2026 :)

Part II of the Winners Shortlist for the 2025 TRM Essay Competition is now available :) From Star Wars to Pokemon; folding paper to folding space; fractals to formulae - there's something for everyone. Overall winners to be announced next week, watch this space!

NEW VIDEO: Your new favourite series is back with more number facts and origins of words. Round 9 sees words for colours from @susiedent.com, taking on happy numbers from @tomrocksmaths.bsky.social. Vote for your winner here: forms.gle/drYjSgYVVqi3...

When you both love maths <3... Watch the second Spark Session @hlforum.bsky.social to see talks from Jeff Dean & David Patterson on 'Shaping AI's Impact to Help Billions', and from Leslie Valiant on 'Education and Educability'. A pleasure to moderate as always :)

A fun Q&A for the @robinsoncollege.bsky.social Bin Brook magazine - discover the greatest influence on my approach to teaching; the subjects I found most difficult at university; advice for my younger self; and my favourite maths joke...

NEW VIDEO: Watch 5 short talks from 2x Turing award recipients, 3x ACM Prize in Computing awardees, and 1x Nevanlinna Prize recipient in the first Spark Session ‪at the 12th Heidelberg Laureate Forum. I had the pleasure of moderating this fantastic group of speakers - enjoy :)

Sanjeev Arora - 2011 ACM Prize in Computing and #1 ranked student in the 1986 IIT JEE (said to be the hardest exam in the world). We talked all things AI, the future of mathematics, and top tips for anyone studying for the JEE. Full video coming soon - watch this space :)

Happy Birthday to us! 🎉🥳 Today marks our 147th birthday as Oxford University's 'secret treasure'. 🎂 To celebrate, share one of your favourite moments from studying with us in the comments! 📸 Thank you so much to Christ Church for capturing this wonderful speech from the Vice Chancellor. @ox.ac.uk

NEW VIDEO: A double header for you today with the premiere of Part 1 on Dr PK Math from 4:30pm (GMT+1) and Part 2 on my channel from 5pm (GMT+1). Watch me calculate the determinant of the integral of the exponential of a matrix - yes, you read that correctly... See you in the live chat!

Great to see YouTube and the UK Creator Economy featured in the news today with the release of a report from Oxford Economics - but did you spot a familiar face in the "Shared Learning" section? Love seeing maths front and centre :)

NEW VIDEO: Watch Part 2 of the 'Maths vs. Physics' collab with Z-Physics where I set Zhelyo a question from the International Maths Olympiad... How will the Physicist cope with a difficult Maths problem? Watch at the link below to find out!

If you’re applying for Maths @ox.ac.uk or @cam.ac.uk then here are my college choices… Oxford - @stedmundhall.bsky.social: I teach 1st year and 2nd years. Cambridge - Robinson I teach 1st and 2nd years. Best of luck with your applications and hopefully see you in Oxford/Cambridge very soon!

David Silver - 2019 ACM Prize in Computing for “breakthrough advances in computer game-playing” (yes that is the real citation). Remember when AlphaGo beat the world champion at Go? It was David and his team. Seriously cool work and seriously cool person. Full video coming soon!

Final night dinner ​⁠at the Heidelberg Laureate Forum - taking selfies with Vint Cerf (2005 Turing Award); 23 signatures from Laureates in Maths and Computer Science; beautiful views of Heidelberg Castle; and meeting Amanda Randles (2023 ACM Prize in Computing). What a night!

Pat Hanrahan - 2019 Turing Award; 1993, 2004, 2014 Academy Awards. Will there ever be anyone else that completes the duo of the most prestigious prize in an academic field alongside multiple Oscars? Unreal achievements from the architect of computer animation and the GOAT of computer graphics.

NEW VIDEO: Maths vs Physics (the rematch). Zhelyo Physics challenges me to solve a question from the International Physics Olympiad - in his words, the hardest physics competition in existence. Join the premiere today at 4pm (GMT+1) to see how I get on...