Desmond MacHale (born 28 January 1946) is an Irish mathematician who is Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at University College Cork.

[1][2] He is an author and speaker on several subjects, including George Boole, lateral thinking puzzles, and humour.

He has published over 80 books, some of which have been translated into languages including Danish, Italian, Norwegian, Spanish, German, Korean, and Japanese.

[12][13] From 1984 to 2007, MacHale ran the Superbrain Competition at University College Cork, including setting the questions and grading the papers.

[citation needed] A book of the questions (with solutions) from 1984 to 2008 was published in 2011 as The First Twenty-Five Years of the Superbrain by Diarmuid Early & Des MacHale.