Eugenia Cheng is a mathematician and concert pianist. She is Scientist In Residence at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and won tenure at the University of Sheffield, UK. She previously taught at the universities of Cambridge, Chicago and Nice and holds a PhD in pure mathematics from the University of Cambridge. Alongside her research in Category Theory and undergraduate teaching her aim is to rid the world of “math phobia.” Eugenia was an early pioneer of math on YouTube and her videos have been viewed over 20 million times to date. She has also assisted with mathematics in elementary, middle, and high schools for over 20 years. Her first popular math book How to Bake Pi was featured on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert; Beyond Infinity was shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book Prize 2017; she has also written two children’s books, and her books have been translated into 17 languages. She writes the Everyday Math column for the Wall Street Journal, and has completed mathematical art commissions at Hotel EMC2, 6018 North, the Lubeznik Center, the Cultural Center, Chicago, and EXPO Chicago. She is also a composer, and has been commissioned by GRAMMY nominated soprano Laura Strickling, and in 2022-2023 is a composer for Lynx Project Amplify, which commissions songs setting poetry by primarily non-speaking autistic poets. Eugenia is the founder of the Liederstube, an intimate oasis for art song based in Chicago. Her most recent book Is Math Real? was published in 2023 and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in the Science & Technology category.

Howie Hua teaches math to future elementary school teachers at Fresno State. He has spoken nationally and internationally at math conferences, school districts, and school assemblies, so far having spoken to organizations in twenty states and four countries. In 2019, Howie was awarded Outstanding Lecturer for the College of Science and Math at his university and in 2024, he was awarded Fresno State’s Provost’s Award for Outstanding Lecturer. He loves to listen to student thinking and build conceptual understanding. You can find him on social media sharing math explainer videos, math memes, and teaching tips.

Luis Antonio Leyva is an Associate Professor of Mathematics Education & STEM Higher Education in the Department of Teaching & Learning at Vanderbilt University – Peabody College of Education & Human Development. He directs the Power, Resistance & Identity in STEM Education (PRISM) Research Lab. Leyva’s research examines and seeks to disrupt how interlocking systems of power, including racism and cisheteropatriarchy, shape classroom teaching and student support in undergraduate mathematics and STEM higher education broadly. He centers undergraduate STEM students’ narratives of oppression, agency, and support to uncover how educational practices limit and expand learning opportunities that affirm their identities across intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and other social differences. Leyva has published his research in the American Educational Research Journal, Cognition & Instruction, International Journal of Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education, The Journal of Higher Education, and Journal for Research in Mathematics Education. His research has been supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (Mindset Scholars Network), National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation, and National Science Foundation. Leyva’s scholarship has been distinguished with various national awards and honors, including an Emerging Scholar honoree (Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, 2024), LGBTQ+ Educator of the Year Award (Out to Innovate, 2022), and Early-Career Publication Award (AERA Special Interest Group on Research in Mathematics Education, 2018). Prior to his faculty appointment, Leyva was certified as a high school mathematics teacher and worked in several college student support programs for historically marginalized populations in STEM, including the STEM Talent Expansion Program and the TRIO Upward Bound Math-Science program.