This Jewish Woman Heads the Nation’s Only Mathematics Museum

Photo Credit: National Museum of Mathematics

“MoMath wants to be the symphony of mathematics,” says Cindy Lawrence, founder and executive director of the National Museum of Mathematics, North America’s only mathematics museum. Lawrence notes that a child can hear a symphony and become inspired to be a musician, and that before this museum came into being, there was no way to generate this kind of enthusiasm about mathematics. Now, Lawrence tells stories of parents dragging crying children out of the museum because they don’t want to leave. Often, these same children didn’t want to go to a math museum in the first place. 

Lawrence became involved with MoMath after meeting Glen Whitney, a fellow founder of the museum, at her temple.