James Grime

James Grime is a British mathematician and speaker formerly for the Millennium Mathematics Project at the University of Cambridge whose areas of work include group theory, number theory and combinatorics. He is also known for his work in popular mathematics, including his discovery of Grime dice, as well as his contributions to the mathematics YouTube channel Numberphile.
Early life and education
James Grime was born in Nottingham. Grime has stated that he always excelled in mathematics as a schoolchild, although he wasn't always aware of his own ability. He had decided not to study mathematics for his A Levels, until one of his teachers convinced him otherwise. As a child, he enjoyed watching television and had aspirations for a media career. He later cited his childhood experience of watching educational programs, in particular Johnny Ball and the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, as an introduction to the career of mathematics outreach. He progressed to post-graduate study at the University of York, specialising in representation theory and combinatorics. He received his PhD under supervisor Maxim Nazarov.
After receiving his qualifications, Grime worked in academia but sought a career in mathematics outreach. He wanted to "earn his stripes" in academia before pursuing a media career. He argued against the basis of the popular "Redshirts always die" trope, showing statistically that Goldshirts die at a higher rate. Grime has written popular mathematics articles for The Guardian, covering topics such as Cheryl's Birthday and the sinuosity of rivers.
Enigma Project
Grime joined the Millennium Mathematics Project, an outreach project run by the University of Cambridge to promote mathematics to schoolchildren and the general public. As part of the programme, he ran the Enigma Project, where he toured schools in the UK and overseas with an original, operational Enigma machine. The Enigma machine is a 20 century encryption device which was used by Nazi Germany in World War II. The machine was eventually cracked by Allied codebreakers, including Alan Turing and other British mathematicians at Bletchley Park, in an effort generally seen by historians as significantly contributing to the Allied victory in the war. Grime used the tours to show students the exciting aspects of mathematics and cryptanalysis, and to inspire them into considering a mathematics career. Although the Enigma Project ended its regular tours in 2014, Grime is the current custodian of the machine, which is owned by British author Simon Singh. Grime continues to tour around the world with the machine. Since 2011, Grime has appeared in videos for Numberphile, an educational YouTube channel by Australian filmmaker Brady Haran. Haran had received a grant from YouTube to make a mathematics channel and asked Grime to participate.
Maths Gear
Along with Steve Mould and Matt Parker, Grime runs Maths Gear, an online store which sells recreational mathematics items, including Grime dice.
Reception
The Bizarre World of Nontransitive Dice was included in the 2018 edition of annual Best Writing on Mathematics series. Pitici describes Grime's dice as "subtly mischievous". Mashable listed two of Grime's Numberphile videos amongst eight videos that "prove that math is awesome", describing Grime's presentation of infinity "mind-blowing". Grime has been praised for his accessible explanations of complex topics. On the success of Numberphile, Grime has said that it was “unexpected”, but “shows that people underestimate how interested people are about maths around the world”.
*The Bizarre World of Nontransitive Dice: Games for Two or More Players, The College Mathematics Journal, 2017<ref name="bizarreworld"/>

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