author
Levi L. (Levi Leonard) Conant
1857–1916
A mathematician and teacher remembered for making big ideas clear, he wrote influential books on trigonometry and on how number systems developed across cultures. His name lives on through the American Mathematical Society’s Levi L. Conant Prize.
1 Audiobook
The Number Concept: Its Origin and Development
by Levi L. (Levi Leonard) Conant
About the author
Born in Littleton, Massachusetts, in 1857, Levi Leonard Conant was an American mathematician and educator whose career was closely tied to teaching. He studied at Dartmouth College and later earned a Ph.D. from Syracuse University.
Conant taught at the Dakota School of Mines before spending most of his career at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. There he became head of the mathematics department and also served as interim president from 1911 to 1913.
He is especially remembered for his writing, including The Number Concept: Its Origin and Development (1896), a book that explored how counting and numeral systems evolved in different cultures, and for his work in trigonometry. After his death in 1916, his legacy continued through the Levi L. Conant Prize, established by the American Mathematical Society in his honor.