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How Joseph Dauben's Love for Crossword Puzzles Led to an Award
June 25, 2026
A crossword puzzle is structured by clues and answers, but Distinguished Professor of History Joseph Dauben’s award-winning article shows that it also involves geometry, statistics, logic, and mathematical design.
Dauben, who teaches at Lehman College and the Graduate Center, was honored with the 2026 Mathematical Association of America’s (MAA) Halmos-Ford Award for his article “The Mathematics of Crossword Puzzles: In Celebration of Karen Hunger Parshall,” published in The American Mathematical Monthly. The award recognizes expository excellence in an article published by the journal in the previous year.
“Receiving the Halmos-Ford award is especially gratifying because the Monthly is a widely read journal by professional mathematicians and those whose careers have been devoted primarily to teaching mathematics,” Dauben said.
Although he has taught history of science at Lehman and the Graduate Center since 1972, he has never taught a course on the history of mathematics. His research and publications, however, have been devoted to the field.
The article examines the long history of crossword puzzles along with the geometry of grids, numbering and puzzle statistics, computer-assisted construction, logic, and puzzles with mathematical twists, including those involving Archimedean spirals, golden sections, and the Collatz Conjecture.
The MAA cited its “originality, clarity, and ability to reveal mathematics in unexpected places,” writing that it “stands as a distinguished contribution to mathematical expository writing and to the broader mission of fostering appreciation for the beauty and ubiquity of mathematics.”
Dauben wrote the piece for a special issue of the Monthly recognizing the career and retirement of his friend, fellow science historian and crossword aficionado Karen Hunger Parshall at the University of Virginia.
“Karen Parshall and I have shared an interest in crossword puzzles for decades, and often share our reactions to puzzles, usually those in the New York Times, via ongoing email exchanges,” he said. “We were always on the lookout for ones that had a particularly interesting mathematical component—most often in the clues and answers but sometimes relating to broader issues of the actual construction of puzzles themselves.”
“On the occasion of this special issue,” he added, “I thought it would be appropriate to address the matter of this most American of pastimes—the crossword puzzle—and mathematics.”
Read the award-winning article here