OK, for today’s math profile we’ll be talking about E.D… no, no, not erectile dysfunction (as all you emeritus 75 year-old Yale profs were automatically thinking), but Erik Demaine, one of the most interesting chaps out there. Dr. Demaine is a Professor in Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (that’s a school in Cambridge, Massachusetts, down the road from Lesley University). I’m sure most professional mathematicians well know of Erik, but for my lay readers who might not, we’ll start at the beginning:
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”
WAIT!! No, I’ve gone back too far, let’s start at February 28, 1981, the day Erik was born as an up-and-coming Pisces with Pythagorus rising. Six days later Walter Cronkite stepped down after 19 years of anchoring the CBS News, though I think that was purely coincidental (and as we all know, if you've read Nassim Taleb, coincidence is not causation). 1981 is also the year of the Simon & Garfunkel ‘Concert in Central Park,’ not that Erik would remember any of that as he was probably sucking on a pacifier or a Klein bottle at the time.
Anyway, he was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, making him ineligible to become President of these here United (LOL) States even though he’d be better at it than any imaginable Republican candidate of the future (unless of course Abe Lincoln is exhumed, cloned, and run against Kirsten Gillibrand).
At around the age of 7, Erik was identified as a “child prodigy” and began traveling across North America with his high-school-educated, artist father. One article states that Erik was “raised among hippies and jugglers and free thinkers” (...no doubt the world would be a better place if we all were!). He has since become a world traveler, still often working with his father, combining math and art. As a kid he got interested in mathematics when he wondered aloud how video games worked and his dad explained that you had to know computer programming which in turn meant knowing mathematics. So Erik was off and running.
During that youthful time he was home-schooled until finally entering a Canadian university at the age of 12, an age when I was still vigorously playing with Silly Putty (…much like today). At 14 he had his bachelor’s degree, moving on to the University of Waterloo where he completed a PhD. by the age of 20. His dissertation was on “computational origami” (and even won an award as the best PhD. thesis in Canada) so you know he’s gotta be a fun person!
Also at age 20 he joined the faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (there must've been no suitable openings at Pomona College), the youngest professor in the school’s history. In 2003 he won a MacArthur Fellowship (so-called “genius grant”) apparently knocking me (waaaaaaay) out of contention. In 2011 he became a full MIT professor. And he soon acquired an ‘Aaronson Number’ of 1, publishing with computer scientist Scott Aaronson… OK, I made that up, there is no such thing as an ‘Aaronson Number,’ but there should be (and as soon as Scott wins a MacArthur Award I may be profiling him too). p.s.: Erik DOES have an Erdös Number of 2 (while mine continues to languish around 2googol ).
By now it’s probably time for Erik (approaching 40 and losing his edge) to retire and pass the baton on to some new prodigy, so he can spend more time on his many, varied hobbies… no, no, he is beloved by his students and has MANY productive, game-filled years ahead, during which perhaps he can even figure out how-the-heck dang Silly Putty works. Speaking of hobbies, Erik is into glassblowing, origami, juggling, magic, video games, improvisational comedy/theatre, and Kama Sutra (just kidding, I mean c'mon Kama Sutra is sooooo 1960s). A virtuoso of talents.
Demaine's primary research interests focus on algorithms, including protein-folding, computational geometry, and other complexities. His MacArthur award describes him as a “computational geometer tackling and solving difficult problems related to folding and bending—moving readily between the theoretical and the playful, with a keen eye to revealing the former in the latter”. In other words he’s a 10-year old in a grown man’s body. Indeed, much like Tadashi Tokieda, who I profiled earlier, "play" and curiosity are the essential elements in Erik's whole approach to teaching/learning/doing math and science, and his office is filled with toys, games, puzzles, and Jimmy Hoffa's ashes (NOT!).
His fun side is further exemplified by the fact that he is President of the Board of Directors of the Gathering 4 Gardner group, carrying on Martin Gardner’s recreational legacy.
Here he is at one of their gatherings talking about juggling and card shuffling:
...and here’s one brief interview with Erik:
There are lots more videos of him on YouTube, where he consistently demonstrates his immaculate taste in cutting-edge fashion:
Anyway, Erik has done more in less than 40 years than I’ve accomplished in... well... somewhat more than that (…though I’ve gotten pretty good with Silly Putty). And with any luck I hope one day he lands a plum job in the Scott Aaronson Presidential Administration. With any luck, some of you will live long enough to see it (I, on the other hand, may have perished during the 4th term of the Trump Administration).
A brief transcribed interview with Erik is here:
And another article on him:
https://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-01/dazzling-sometimes-absurd-always-playful-genius-erik-demaine/
https://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-01/dazzling-sometimes-absurd-always-playful-genius-erik-demaine/
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Prior math profiles have been of:
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