Neil Challis was born in Cambridge, UK. He studied mathematics at the University of Bristol and subsequently worked for some years as a mathematician in the British Gas Engineering Research Station...view moreNeil Challis was born in Cambridge, UK. He studied mathematics at the University of Bristol and subsequently worked for some years as a mathematician in the British Gas Engineering Research Station at Killingworth. Since 1977, he has worked in the Mathematics Group, Sheffield Hallam University, UK and is currently head of that group. He obtained a PhD in mathematics from the University of Sheffield in 1988 and has taught mathematics to a wide variety of students, across the spectrum from first year engineers and other non-mathematicians who need access to mathematical ideas, techniques and thinking, to final year single honours mathematics students.view less