Hi! I’m Sheila Prakash (Sheesh). I went to Carnegie Mellon University and teach math in New York City. I’ve written for The New York Times and been rejected 112 times (and counting) by The New Yorker.

I want everyone to belong to math — especially people who can’t stand it. So I write funny math questions anyone can answer and leave them at water fountains around the city.

I’m interested in prebiotic chemistry and ocean worlds and completed NASA’s Astrobiology Summer School in 2008. I also love dinosaurs and audited Dr. Paul Olsen’s legendary course Dinosaurs and the History of Life at Columbia University. My favorite mathematician is Bernhard Riemann and my favorite art critic is Roberta Smith.

I’m proud to sit on the board of the Ali Forney Center, the largest LGBTQ+ youth homeless shelter in the country.

If you’d like to say hi, contact me at sheilap@alumni.cmu.edu!