Competition: Maths Writers Wanted

Ever wanted to be a writer? Do you have something good, important or amusing to say about maths or maths education? Here's a chance to prove your flair for the written word in a competition organised by Plus Magazine and the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications. The competition has been launched to celebrate 50 years of the IMA.

The winning article, and possibly some of the runners-up, will be published in a forthcoming book provisionally named fifty.

You can choose to write on a topic in any one of the following categories:

• The best maths of the last fifty years, including strange or interesting biography;
• Popular maths: sport, arts (prose, poetry and visual media), social science;
• Maths at work: medicine, finance, the environment, government;
• Quirky maths, humour, spoof and magic;
• Philosophy/psychology of maths, maths in education.

The article should appeal to readers of popular science books, and those with any interest in mathematics. It should be aimed at an international audience. But it is vitally important that the article should avoid over-simplification.

Any questions concerning the competition should be emailed to 50book@ima.org.uk .

Any format for the document will be accepted. Please submit your article by email to IMA50@maths.cam.ac.uk by 15 January 2013 with 'competition entry' as the email subject. More details can be found on the Plus website.