First up, do you have a telescope?
Yes, and it is called mathematics. Ever since we have been looking up at the night sky, mathematics has been a powerful tool to navigate the cosmos. Trigonometry helps us to work out how far the planets are from the sun. The laws of motion tell us when to expect an eclipse and even told us about a missing planet: Neptune.
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As a child, what did you want to do when you grew up?
I wanted to be a spy.
Explain what you do in one easy paragraph.
A mathematician is a pattern searcher. In my own research, I am trying to understand the world of symmetry. Are there hidden patterns that might help us to discover new symmetrical objects?
What does a typical day involve?
I don鈥檛 have a typical day! But it might involve some hours in deep mathematical meditation at my desk.
What do you love most about what you do?
There is an extraordinary buzz about unlocking an eternal truth about the universe. The 鈥渁ha!鈥� moment that you get when you make a mathematical discovery is very addictive.
What鈥檚 the most exciting thing you鈥檝e worked on recently?
I have spent the past few years writing a book about the impact of machine learning and AI on creativity.
Were you good at science at school?
I was good at the abstract, theoretical stuff, but my experiments always went wrong and no one would be my lab partner. That鈥檚 why I chose maths.
If you could send a message back to yourself as a kid, what would you say?
Don鈥檛 worry that you can鈥檛 spell, they鈥檙e going to invent this thing called a spellchecker.
What鈥檚 the best piece of advice anyone ever gave you?
Creativity comes in waves. When you鈥檝e hit your first peak, there will inevitably be a fallow period before the next peak arrives.
If you could have a long conversation with any scientist, living or dead, who would it be?
I鈥檇 love to chat to the French revolutionary Evariste Galois, who created the language of symmetry, and try to persuade him not to take part in the duel that killed him aged 20.
What鈥檚 the best thing you鈥檝e read or seen in the past 12 months?
The Alps. I went hiking hut to hut, inspired by reading Robert Macfarlane鈥檚 beautiful book Mountains of the Mind.
Do you have a weird hobby and, if so, please will you tell us about it?
I have a games collection. Wherever I travel, I like to seek out the local game that people play.
How useful will your skills be after the apocalypse?
Mathematics is our best tool for making predictions and planning for the future. It will probably tell us when the apocalypse is due. Because you only need pen and paper to do mathematics, we should be able to carry on after the apocalypse has struck.
OK, one last thing: tell us something that will blow our minds鈥�
There isn鈥檛 just one infinity. There are infinitely many infinities, some bigger than others. This discovery by the 19th-century mathematician Georg Cantor certainly blew my mind when I first encountered it.
Marcus du Sautoy聽is professor of mathematics and the public understanding of science at the University of Oxford and is known for his work popularising maths. His聽latest book is The Creativity Code (Fourth Estate). Read his thoughts on whether AI can ever truly be creative in next week鈥檚 issue
