LOUISVILLE, Ky. 鈥 Massachusetts Institute of Technology computer scientist Erik Demaine, who is known for his interest in where art and math intersect, will talk about geometric puzzles March 29 at the University of Louisville.
Demaine will give the free, public talk, 鈥淕eometric Puzzles: Algorithms and Complexity,鈥 at 6:30 p.m. in Room 101, Strickler Hall. Demaine鈥檚 talk is the annual Bullitt lecture sponsored by the UofL mathematics department.
The Bullitt family endowed the general-interest lecture series to honor former U.S. Solicitor General William Marshall Bullitt鈥檚 interest in mathematics.
Demaine鈥檚 research interests in problem-solving range from the geometry of how proteins fold to the data structures that improve web searches. He co-wrote the books 鈥淕ames, Puzzles and Computation鈥 about the computational complexity of games and 鈥淕eometric Folding Algorithms鈥 about the theory of folding.
As a visual artist, he collaborates with his father in media including glass and paper sculpture. His curved-crease folded paper structures are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and he recently was featured in the 鈥淏etween the Folds鈥 documentary about the art and science of paper folding, or origami.
Demaine joined the MIT faculty in 2001 at age 20 and received a MacArthur fellowship in 2003.
For more information, call Jake Wildstrom at 502-852-5845 or check .