He is the Feld Family Professor of Teaching Excellence at Boston University, and served as the president of the Mathematical Association of America from 2013 to 2015.

[3] Devaney graduated in 1969 from the College of the Holy Cross,[4][5] and earned his Ph.D. in 1973 from the University of California, Berkeley, under the supervision of Stephen Smale.

[4][5] Devaney is known for formulating a simple and widely used definition of chaotic systems, one that does not need advanced concepts such as measure theory.

[4][5] In 1995, Devaney won the Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo Award for Distinguished University Teaching of the Mathematical Association of America.

The papers from the conference were published in a special issue of the Journal of Difference Equations and Applications in 2010, also honoring Devaney.