Waterloo alum Erik Demaine publishes mathematical proof on infinite folds

Tuesday, April 5, 2022
Erik Demaine

Erik Demaine (PhD ’02) and a team of researchers, including his father, have published a proof on a geometric problem involving infinite folds.

Demaine is currently a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), who had a storied academic career at Waterloo. He was admitted to graduate studies at the Cheriton School of Computer Science at the age of 14.

Demaine began teaching at MIT at the age of twenty, reportedly the youngest professor in the institution’s history. He has made outstanding contributions in several fields of algorithms, namely computational geometry, data structures, graph algorithms and recreational algorithms.

In this recent work, Demaine continued research he started under the tutelage of his supervisor, Anna Lubiw, a professor at the Cheriton School of Computer Science.

As part of his scholarship, Demaine also produces mathematical art, including curved-crease sculptures, which have been displayed at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Read more about the new proof in the feature article in Quanta Magazine.