Jonathan Farley is one of the world’s most impressive young mathematicians....  He is a model of excellence for young people of all backgrounds, but especially African-Americans who may see their intellectual potential in him.  Harvard is proud to honor his achievements and acknowledge his fine example.

―           Professor S. Allen Counter, Harvard University, and Consul General of Sweden in Boston and New England (Jet Magazine, July 19, 2004)

Dr. Jonathan David Farley has been a Visiting Professor of Mathematics at the California Institute of Technology ("Caltech"), a Science Fellow at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation, a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Mathematics at Harvard University, and a Visiting Associate Professor of Applied Mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Seed Magazine named Dr. Farley one of “15 people who have shaped the global conversation about science in 2005.”  In 2005, Dr. Farley was given the key to the City of Columbia, South Carolina (the state capital).

Dr. Farley is the 2004 recipient of the Harvard Foundation’s Distinguished Scientist of the Year Award, a medal presented on behalf of the president of Harvard University in recognition of “outstanding achievements and contributions in the field of mathematics.”  The City of Cambridge, Massachusetts (home to both Harvard University and MIT) officially declared March 19, 2004 to be “Dr. Jonathan David Farley Day.”  In 2004, Dr. Farley was recruited to serve as Head of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at The University of the West Indies (Jamaica).

He received tenure at Vanderbilt University in 2003, but fled Tennessee after receiving death threats from supporters of the founder of the Ku Klux Klan.

In 2001-2002, Dr. Farley was a Fulbright Distinguished Scholar to the United Kingdom. He was one of only four Americans to win this award in 2001-2002.

Jonathan Farley obtained his doctorate in mathematics from Oxford University in 1995, after winning Oxford’s highest mathematics awards, the Senior Mathematical Prize and Johnson University Prize, in 1994.

Farley graduated summa cum laude from Harvard University in 1991 with the second-highest grade point average in his graduating class.  (He earned 29 A’s and 3 A-’s.)  While there, he won, among other awards, Harvard’s Wendell Prize, for the “most promising and catholic [small ‘c’] sophomore scholar.”

Jonathan Farley’s main areas of research are lattice theory and the theory of ordered sets.  His main results in these areas include the following: the resolution of a conjecture posed by MIT Professor of Applied Mathematics Richard Stanley in 1975; the solution to a problem posed by Richard Stanley that had remained unsolved since 1981; the solution to some problems from Richard Stanley’s classic 1986 text, Enumerative Combinatorics: Volume I; the solution to a problem in “transversal theory” attributed to combinatorialist Richard Rado that had remained unsolved since 1971; the solution to several problems from the 1981 Banff Conference on Ordered Sets and the 1984 Banff Conference on Graphs and Order;  the solution to some problems of lattice theory pioneer George Grätzer from 1964; the solution to some problems of lattice theory pioneer E. T. Schmidt from 1974 and 1979; and the solution to a problem published in 1982 by universal algebra pioneer Bjarni Jónsson and Berkeley Professor (now emeritus) Ralph McKenzie. 

Jonathan Farley’s work applying mathematics to counterterrorism has been profiled in The Chronicle of Higher Education, in Science News Online, in The Economist Magazine, in USA Today, on Fox News Television, and on Air America Radio.  He is Chief Scientist of Phoenix Mathematics, Inc., a company that develops mathematical solutions to homeland security-related problems.

He has had face-to-face meetings discussing math-for-counterterrorism with the Jamaican Minister of National Security, a former Director of the US National Security Agency and a former Deputy Director of the CIA, the director of Homeland Security for the Port of Los Angeles, a former US ambassador to the European Union, a former governor of the US state of New Mexico, a US Air Force general, two US Navy admirals and the current US Director of National Intelligence.

Dr. Farley was a 2007 Proteus Monograph Series Fellow.  In 2005-2006, he was a Science Fellow at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation.  He has co-organized five Conferences on Mathematical Methods in Counterterrorism. 

Beginning the first week the hit television show Numb3rs aired, Jonathan Farley, as well as, soon afterwards, the agent for the company he co-founded, Hollywood Math and Science Film Consulting, wrote the staff of Numb3rs, suggesting that they, in conjunction with the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, create homework assignments that teachers could use focusing on the math and science in the show.   Nine months later, Numb3rs inaugurated the “We All Use Math Every Day” program, with the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and Texas Instruments.  This program creates homework assignments that teachers can use focusing on the math and science in the show.  Dr. Farley also used his idea with Dr. Tony Harkin for Flatland the Movie, starring Martin Sheen, Michael York, and Kristen Bell.

Jonathan Farley spoke at the launch of Raytheon Corporation’s math education website, MathMovesU.com.  The only other speakers were Sarah Greenwald, representing Hollywood Math and Science Film Consulting, the late U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy, the late U.S. Congresswoman Jo Ann Davis, Raytheon Senior Vice President for Strategy Bill Lynn (now U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense), and Olympic gold medalist Apolo Ohno. Seated next to Dr. Farley was U.S. Congressman Silvestre Reyes.

Dr. Farley is also interested in encouraging girls who wish to do mathematics.  He conceived of and co-organized a symposium on women and mathematics at Stanford University’s Center for Research on Women and Gender (now the Clayman Institute), called “Proof and Prejudice.”  Television actress Danica McKellar asked Dr. Farley to provide a quote for her best-selling math book for middle school-aged girls, Math Doesn’t Suck.

Jonathan Farley has also worked with the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering and the Algebra Project.  Jonathan Farley co-founded the consulting group Axum Educational Solutions.    

Jonathan Farley was an invited speaker at the November 18, 2001 “Stop the War” march in London.  With an estimated 100,000 people, it was the largest peace demonstration since the Vietnam War.  Dr. Farley was the second speaker, after Member of the European Parliament Caroline Lucas.

Former British Member of Parliament and member of the prime minister’s cabinet, Tony Benn, writes in his memoirs: “To Hyde Park, where a huge crowd was gathering.  It was the biggest demonstration I can remember for many, many years.  Among those who spoke later in Trafalgar Square were John Pilger, Bianca Jagger [ex-wife of Mick Jagger], Tariq Ali, [former Taliban hostage] Yvonne Ridley, New York trade unionist Michael Letwin, Tennessee-born [sic] Dr Jonathan Farley, [Member of Parliament] Jeremy Corbyn, [Member of Parliament] Paul Marsden, [Member of Parliament] Alan Simpson, [Member of Parliament] George Galloway; then there was Germaine Greer, who turned up but was a bit late, the journalist George Monbiot, John Haylett (Editor of the Morning Star), Louise Christian, Paul Mackney, Bernard Reagan, David Nellist, Mike Mansfield and a whole range of others.”