Steven R. Finch is Research Computing Specialist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management. He is honoured to have received a Book Fellowship from the Clay Mathematics Institute and a Ford award for expository excellence. After the publication of the first volume of Mathematical Constants (Cambridge, 2003), he worked for three years as a statistical programmer at the Boston University School of Public Health, and then taught for ten years as a preceptor at the Harvard University Department of Statistics.
'Like the best sequels, this one covers similar ground to the original but finds ways to stay fresh and interesting ... any mathematician or math student who picks it up and spends a few minutes with it is likely to find something that is new and of interest to them. ... Finch has once again written a collection of essays about a wide range of topics that I expect I will enjoy flipping through for another decade and a half until I look forward to having Volume III land on my desk.' Darren Glass, MAA reviews 'This is a remarkable book ... [which] can be thought of as a collection of essays that recount stories that are both successful and tangible.' Paul F. Bracken, MathSciNet 'Some of the most intriguing formulas of mathematics (like those of Ramanujan) adorn this treasure trove of mathematical gems ... Steven R. Finch's incredible labor of love, an encyclopedia of mathematical constants ... contain a total of 269 meticulously documented essays from all fields of mathematics.' Osmo Peokonen, The Mathematical Intelligencer 'Taken together, Mathematical Constants and Mathematical Constants II form a comprehensive and unique work that is a welcome addition to the mathematician's reference library.' Steven R. Finch, Notices of the AMS