Maarten Ambaum is Senior Lecturer in Theoretical Meteorology at the University of Reading. His research interests span a wide range of topics in the physics and mathematics of the atmosphere and oceans. He has a degree in theoretical physics from the University of Utrecht, The Netherlands. His most recent work dealt with the influence of cosmic rays on cloud formation, statistical methods in climate science, thermodynamics of the climate system, and predictability of the jet stream. He is author of a textbook on thermal physics of the atmosphere. Some of his work was also part of an art-science collaboration between the Universities of Brighton, Reading, Exeter and Sussex.

Homepage: www.met.rdg.ac.uk/~sws97mha

There are probably around a hundred proofs of the Pythagoras theorem. Functionally they are the same; they all prove the Pythagoras theorem. But some of these proofs are beautiful, some are surprising, others are dull. If you 'speak maths', then one proof is a like a poem, and another is like an excerpt from a safety manual. One proof is creative, another one is utilitarian.