Lateral Solutions to Mathematical Problems

Desmond MacHale was born in 1946 in Castlebar, County Mayo, Ireland. He earned his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Mathematical Science at University College Galway. In 1972, he was awarded a Ph.D. degree in Group Theory at the University of Keele in the UK under the supervision of Dr. Hans Liebeck. He taught mathematics for forty years at University College Cork in Ireland, rising to the rank of Associate Professor. He has over a hundred research articles published in refereed mathematical journals and his interests lie mainly in abstract algebra (groups and rings) but he has also published articles on geometric dissections, number theory, Euclidean geometry, trigonometry and a book on mathematical humour (Comic Sections Plus). Both as a student and teacher, he has won many prizes for his work on the popularisation of mathematics. He is currently Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at University College Cork.

In 1984 he set up the Superbrain Examination open to all students of UCC and later the Irish Intervarsity Mathematics Competition. He has written four biographical books on George Boole who was the first professor of mathematics in Cork from 1849 to 1864. These are George Boole His Life and Work (2014); New Light on George Boole (with Yvonne Cohen) (2018); The Poetry of George Boole( 2021); and Simply Boole (with Yvonne Cohen) to appear. In 2015 he was awarded an honorary doctorate in Literature by the National University of Ireland for his work on George Boole. He has written over a dozen books of Lateral Thinking puzzles with Paul Sloane and many other books of mathematical puzzles, riddles and jokes--over eighty books in all.

Among Des MacHale's other interests are Geology (in which he has a diploma), puzzles of all sorts, words, music especially classical and Irish, photography,

He believes that mathematics is like an infinite goldmine--the more gold you dig out, the more there is to find.

Desmond MacHale於1946年出生於愛爾蘭梅奧郡卡斯爾巴爾。他在愛爾蘭國立高威大學獲得數學科學的學士和碩士學位。1972年，他在英國基爾大學在Hans Liebeck博士的指導下獲得群論的博士學位。他在愛爾蘭科克大學教授數學四十年，晉升為副教授。他在被同行評審的數學期刊上發表了一百多篇研究文章，主要興趣在於抽象代數（群和環），但他也發表了有關幾何分割、數論、歐幾里得幾何、三角學以及一本關於數學幽默的書籍（Comic Sections Plus）。作為學生和教師，他在數學普及方面的工作獲得了許多獎項。他目前是愛爾蘭科克大學的名譽數學教授。

1984年，他創辦了對愛爾蘭科克大學所有學生開放的Superbrain考試，後來又創辦了愛爾蘭大學間數學競賽。他撰寫了四本關於喬治·布爾的傳記書籍，布爾是1849年至1864年間科克的第一位數學教授。這些書籍包括《George Boole His Life and Work》（2014年）、《New Light on George Boole》（與Yvonne Cohen合著）（2018年）、《The Poetry of George Boole》（2021年）以及即將出版的《Simply Boole》（與Yvonne Cohen合著）。2015年，他因在喬治·布爾的研究工作中獲得愛爾蘭國立大學頒發了文學榮譽博士學位。他與Paul Sloane合著了十多本關於側向思維的謎題書籍，以及許多其他數學謎題、謎語和笑話書籍，總共超過八十本。

Des MacHale的其他興趣還包括地質學（他持有一個文憑）、各種謎題、文字、音樂（尤其是古典音樂和愛爾蘭音樂）、攝影。他認為數學就像一個無窮的金礦，挖得越多，就越能發現更多。