Michael Starbird, Ph.D.

Michael Starbird, Ph.D., is a University Distinguished Teaching Professor of Mathematics at The University of Texas at Austin. He has been at UT Austin his entire career except for leaves to the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Dr. Starbird has received more than a dozen teaching awards, including the Mathematical Association of America’s 2007 national teaching award, the Minnie Stevens Piper Professor award, the UT System Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award, and most of UT Austin’s teaching awards. He has produced DVD courses for The Teaching Company in the Great Courses Series on calculus, statistics, probability, geometry, and the joy of thinking. He has given hundreds of lectures and workshops. Dr. Starbird has co-authored several books including inquiry-based learning textbooks and three books with co-author Edward Burger: The Heart of Mathematics: An invitation to effective thinking; Coincidences, Chaos, and All That Math Jazz: Making Light of Weighty Ideas; and The 5 Elements of Effective Thinking.