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 132 times (and counting) by The New Yorker. I update the rejections below.

I want everyone to belong to math — especially people who hate it. So I write crazy simple math questions anyone can answer. Sometimes I leave some of them at water fountains around the city!

I completed NASA’s Astrobiology Summer School in 2008 and try to stay up to date (as best I can) with NASA’s Decadal Astrobiology Strategy. I also love dinosaurs and audited Dr. Paul Olsen’s Dinosaurs and the History of Life course at Columbia University in 2024.

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! For a math compliment, go here!