ABOUT:  Margaret Wertheim is a writer and artist whose work focuses on relations between science and the wider cultural landscape. A two-fold perspective animates her work: on the one hand science can be seen a set of conceptual enchantments that delight our minds and senses; on the other hand science is a socially embedded activity intersecting with philosophy, culture and politics. Wertheim aims to illuminate both dimensions of science and mathematics through her books, articles, lectures, workshops, and exhibitions. She blogs on Substack under the title Science Goddess.

Wertheim is the author of seven books including Pythagoras Trousers, a history of physics and religion; The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace: A History of Space from Dante to the Internet; and Physics on the Fringe, a ground-breaking exploration of outsider science. She has written for the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Guardian, Aeon, Cabinet and many others. In 2003, with her twin-sister Christine, she founded the Institute For Figuring, a Los Angeles based practice devoted to the “aesthetic and poetic dimensions of science and mathematics.” Margaret and Christine’s Crochet Coral Reef project is a global participatory art+science endeavor with over 25,000 contributors in 52 cities and countries; it has been exhibited at the 58th Venice Biennale, Helsinki Biennial, Andy Warhol Museum (Pittsburg), Museum of Arts and Design (New York), The Smithsonian (Washington D.C.), and other international venues. Throughout her career, Margaret has been a pioneer in communicating STEM subjects to women. She lectures widely at universities, colleges, and conferences. With degrees in physics (University of Queensland) and mathematics (University of Sydney), she has worked on all seven continents and stood on the South Pole.

Awards + Honors

Wertheim’s honors include Australia’s Scientia Medal for science communication (2017), the American Association of Physics Teachers’ Klopstep Memorial Award (2016) for "communicating the excitement of physics” (the first woman to gain this honor in ten years), and the American Institute of Biological Sciences Print Journalism Award. She has been a Vice Chancellor’s Fellow at the University of Melbourne (2015), a Discovery Fellow at the University of Southern California (2012/2013), and a National Science Foundation visiting journalist to Antarctica (2004). Her writing has appeared in Best American Science Writing (2003, edited by Oliver Sacks), Best Australian Science Writing (2014, 2016, 2018), and Best Writing on Mathematics 2018 (Princeton University Press). Physics Today voted her book Physics on the Fringe one of the 10 best books of the year, and her essay “Radical Dimensions” (on Aeon) was Runner-Up for the Bragg Prize (Australia). Her main-stage TED Talk about her Crochet Coral Reef project has been viewed 1.6 million times and translated into 22 languages. Her artwork has been exhibited at the Venice Biennale, Helsinki Biennial, Hayward Gallery (London), Science Gallery (Dublin), Schlossmuseum Linz (Austria), and was the subject of a museum-wide retrospective at Museum Frieder Burda (Germany).