Erik D. Demaine
Erik Demaine (left), Martin Demaine (center), and Bill Spight (right) watch John Horton Conway demonstrate a card trick (June 2005).
Born	(1981-02-28) February 28, 1981 (age 31) Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Residence	U.S.
Nationality	Canadian and American
Institutions	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Alma mater	Dalhousie University University of Waterloo
Doctoral students	Mihai Pătraşcu

Erik D. Demaine (b. February 28, 1981, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada), is a professor of Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Early life[link]

Erik was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia. His parents are Martin Demaine and Judy Anderson. At age 7, he spent time travelling North America with his father, Martin Demaine, an artist and sculptor; he was home-schooled.^[1] Demaine was a child prodigy.^[2] He entered Dalhousie University in Canada at the age of 12, completed his bachelor's degree when only 14 and completed his PhD when only 20 years old.^[3][4]

Professional accomplishments[link]

His PhD dissertation, a seminal work in the field of computational origami, was completed at the University of Waterloo.^[5] This work was awarded the Canadian Governor General's Gold Medal from the University of Waterloo and the NSERC Doctoral Prize (2003) for the best PhD thesis and research in Canada (one of four awards). This thesis work was largely incorporated into a book.^[6]

He joined the MIT faculty in 2001 at age 20, reportedly the youngest professor in the history of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.^[3][7] In 2003 he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship.

He is a member of the Theory of Computation group at MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.

Mathematical origami artwork by Erik and Martin Demaine was part of the “Design and the Elastic Mind” exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in 2008 and has been included in the MoMA permanent collection.^[8]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Erik Demaine
• Erik Demaine at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
• Biography in MIT News
• Between the Folds Documentary film featuring Erik Demaine and 14 other international origami practitioners

Martin L. (Marty) Demaine (born 1942^[1]) is an artist and mathematician, the Angelika and Barton Weller artist in residence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.^[2]

Demaine attended Medford High School in Medford, Massachusetts.^[3] After studying glassblowing in England, he began his artistic career by blowing art glass in New Brunswick in the early 1970s.^[4] The Demaine Studio, located in Miramichi Bay and later at Opus Village in Mactaquac, was the first one-man glass studio in Canada,^[5] part of the international studio glass movement. Demaine's pieces from this period are represented in the permanent collections of half a dozen major museums^[6] including the Canadian Museum of Civilization^[7] and the National Gallery of Canada. Since joining MIT, Demaine has begun blowing glass again, as an instructor at the MIT Glass Lab;^[8] his newer work features innovative glassblowing techniques intended as a puzzle to his fellow glassblowers.^[4][9]

Martin Demaine is the father of MIT Computer Science professor and MacArthur Fellow Erik Demaine; in 1987 (when Erik was six) they together founded the Erik and Dad Puzzle Company which distributed puzzles throughout Canada.^[10] Erik was home-schooled by Martin, and although Martin never received any higher degree than his high school diploma, his home-schooling catapulted Erik to a B.S. at age 14 and a Ph.D. and MIT professorship at age 20,^[3][11] making him the youngest professor ever hired by MIT.^[12] The two Demaines continue to work closely together and have many joint works of both mathematics and art,^[13] including three pieces of mathematical origami in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York;^[14] their joint mathematical works focus primarily on the mathematics of folding and unfolding objects out of flat materials such as paper and on the computational complexity of games and puzzles.^[9][12] Martin and Erik are also featured in the movie Between the Folds, a documentary on modern origami.

Demaine is a citizen of both Canada and the United States.^[6]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Demaine's web site