Dana Mackenzie, a mathematician turned science writer, is the co-author, with Judea Pearl, of The Book of Why: The New Science of Cause and Effect, published by Basic Books in May 2018. His previous books include The Big Splat, or How Our Moon Came to Be (2003) and The Universe in Zero Words (2012). The former book was named an Editor's Choice by Booklist, and the latter was a finalist for the 2017 Premio Asimov (Asimov Prize) in Italy. In addition, Mackenzie has written several volumes of What's Happening in the Mathematical Sciences, an ongoing series published by the American Mathematical Society. He has been awarded the Chauvenet Prize for exposition by the Mathematical Association of America, and the Communication Award by the Joint Policy Board for Mathematics. Besides mathematics, he is interested in chess (at which he is a Life Master) and dancing (most recently hula, which is kinder to older bodies). He and his wife enjoy providing foster care for kittens for the Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter. His favorite number is 2184, because it can be expressed in two different ways as the difference between a number and a power of the same number (133 - 13 and 37 - 3).
