Steven Henry Strogatz (), born August 13, 1959, is an American mathematician and the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Applied Mathematics at Cornell University. He is known for his work on nonlinear systems, including contributions to the study of synchronization in dynamical systems, and for his research in a variety of areas of applied mathematics, including mathematical biology and complex network theory. Strogatz is the host of Quanta Magazine'''s The Joy of Why podcast. He previously hosted The Joy of x podcast, named after his book of the same name. Education Strogatz attended high school at Loomis Chaffee from 1972 to 1976. He then attended Princeton University, graduating summa cum laude with a B.A. in mathematics. Strogatz completed his senior thesis, titled "The mathematics of supercoiled DNA: an essay in geometric biology", under the supervision of Frederick J. Almgren, Jr. Strogatz then studied as a Marshall Scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge from 1980 to 1982, and then received a Ph.D in applied mathematics from Harvard University in 1986 for his research on the dynamics of the human sleep-wake cycle. He completed his postdoc under Nancy Kopell at Boston University. Career After spending three years as a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard and Boston University, Strogatz joined the faculty of the department of mathematics at MIT in 1989. His research on dynamical systems was recognized with a Presidential Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation in 1990. In 1994 he moved to Cornell where he is the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Applied Mathematics, as well as a professor of mathematics. From 2004 to 2010, he was on the external faculty of the Santa Fe Institute. Research Early in his career, Strogatz worked on a variety of problems in mathematical biology, including the geometry of supercoiled DNA, the topology of three-dimensional chemical waves, and the collective behavior of biological oscillators, such as swarms of synchronously flashing fireflies. In the 1990s, his work focused on nonlinear dynamics and chaos applied to physics, engineering, and biology. Several of these projects dealt with coupled oscillators, such as lasers, superconducting Josephson junctions, and crickets that chirp in unison. His more recent work examines complex systems and their consequences in everyday life, such as the role of crowd synchronization in the wobbling of London's Millennium Bridge on its opening day, and the dynamics of structural balance in social systems. Perhaps his best-known research