Chaim Goodman-Strauss (born June 22, 1967 in Austin TX) is an American mathematician who works in

convex geometry In mathematics, convex geometry is the branch of geometry studying convex sets, mainly in Euclidean space. Convex sets occur naturally in many areas: computational geometry, convex analysis, discrete geometry, functional analysis, geometry of ...

, especially

aperiodic tiling An aperiodic tiling is a non-periodic tiling with the additional property that it does not contain arbitrarily large periodic regions or patches. A set of tile-types (or prototiles) is aperiodic if copies of these tiles can form only non- peri ...

. He is on the faculty of the

University of Arkansas The University of Arkansas (U of A, UArk, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas. It is the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System and the largest university in the state. Founded as Arkans ...

and is a co-author with

John H. Conway John Horton Conway (26 December 1937 – 11 April 2020) was an English mathematician active in the theory of finite groups, knot theory, number theory, combinatorial game theory and coding theory. He also made contributions to many branches o ...

of ''The Symmetries of Things'', a comprehensive book surveying the mathematical theory of patterns.

Education and career

Goodman-Strauss received both his B.S. (1988) and Ph.D. (1994) in mathematics from the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

.Chaim Goodman-Strauss
The College Board His doctoral advisor was John Edwin Luecke. He joined the faculty at the

University of Arkansas, Fayetteville The University of Arkansas (U of A, UArk, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas. It is the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System and the largest university in the state. Founded as Arkansas In ...

(UA) in 1994 and served as departmental chair from 2008 to 2015. He held visiting positions at the

National Autonomous University of Mexico The National Autonomous University of Mexico ( es, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM) is a public research university in Mexico. It is consistently ranked as one of the best universities in Latin America, where it's also the bigges ...

and at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

. During 1995 he did research at The Geometry Center, a mathematics research and education center at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

, where he investigated aperiodic tilings of the plane. Goodman-Strauss has been fascinated by patterns and mathematical paradoxes for as long as he can remember. He attended a lecture about the mathematician

Georg Cantor Georg Ferdinand Ludwig Philipp Cantor ( , ; – January 6, 1918) was a German mathematician. He played a pivotal role in the creation of set theory, which has become a fundamental theory in mathematics. Cantor established the importance o ...

when he was 17 and says, "I was already doomed to be a mathematician, but that lecture sealed my fate." He became a mathematics writer and popularizer. From 2004 to 2012, in conjunction with KUAF 91.3 FM, the University of Arkansas

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

affiliate, he presented ”The Math Factor", a podcast website dealing with recreational mathematics.The Math Factor Podcast Website
July 24, 2012 He is an admirer of

Martin Gardner Martin Gardner (October 21, 1914May 22, 2010) was an American popular mathematics and popular science writer with interests also encompassing scientific skepticism, micromagic, philosophy, religion, and literatureespecially the writings of Lew ...

and is on the Advisory Council of

Gathering 4 Gardner Gathering 4 Gardner (G4G) is an educational foundation and non-profit corporation (Gathering 4 Gardner, Inc.) devoted to preserving the legacy and spirit of prolific writer Martin Gardner. G4G organizes conferences where people who have been inspi ...

, an organization that celebrates the legacy of the famed mathematics popularizer and

Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it ...

columnist,About The G4G Foundation
Gathering 4 Gardner and is particularly active in the associated Celebration of Mind events.

Mathematical artist

In 2008 Goodman-Strauss teamed up with J. H. Conway and Heidi Burgiel to write '' The Symmetries of Things'', an exhaustive and reader accessible overview of the mathematical theory of patterns. He produced hundreds of full-color images for this book using software that he developed for the purpose. The Mathematical Association of America said, "The first thing one notices when one picks up a copy … is that it is a beautiful book … filled with gorgeous color pictures … many of which were generated by Goodman-Strauss. Unlike some books which add in illustrations to keep the reader's attention, the pictures are genuinely essential to the topic of this book."Review of ''The symmetries of things''
by Darren Glass, The Mathematical Association of America, July 10, 2008 He also creates large-scale sculptures inspired by mathematics, and some of these have been featured at Gathering 4 Gardner conferences.The Math Factor Podcast Website
Pictures from the Gathering

Books

* 2008 ''The symmetries of things'' (with by

and Heidi Burgiel). A. K. Peters, Wellesley, MA, 2008,

Papers

"Matching Rules and Substitution Tilings"
''

Annals of Mathematics The ''Annals of Mathematics'' is a mathematical journal published every two months by Princeton University and the Institute for Advanced Study. History The journal was established as ''The Analyst'' in 1874 and with Joel E. Hendricks as th ...

'', Second Series, Vol 147, Issue 1 (January 1998), pp. 181–223
"A Small Aperiodic Set of Planar Tiles"
''

European Journal of Combinatorics European, or Europeans, or Europeneans, may refer to: In general * ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe ** Ethnic groups in Europe ** Demographics of Europe ** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe ...

'', Vol 20, Issue 5, (July 1999) pp. 375–384
"Compass and Straightedge in the Poincaré Disk"
''

American Mathematical Monthly ''The American Mathematical Monthly'' is a mathematical journal founded by Benjamin Finkel in 1894. It is published ten times each year by Taylor & Francis for the Mathematical Association of America. The ''American Mathematical Monthly'' is an ...

'' Vol. 108 (January 2001), pp. 38–49
"Can’t Decide? Undecide!"
''

Notices of the American Mathematical Society ''Notices of the American Mathematical Society'' is the membership journal of the American Mathematical Society (AMS), published monthly except for the combined June/July issue. The first volume appeared in 1953. Each issue of the magazine sinc ...

'' Vol. 57 (March 2010), pp. 343–356
"A strongly aperiodic set of tiles in the hyperbolic plane"
''

Inventiones Mathematicae ''Inventiones Mathematicae'' is a mathematical journal published monthly by Springer Science+Business Media. It was established in 1966 and is regarded as one of the most prestigious mathematics journals in the world. The current managing editor ...

'', Vol 159, Issue 1 (2005), pp. 119–132
"Lots of Aperiodic Sets of Tiles"
''

Journal of Combinatorial Theory The ''Journal of Combinatorial Theory'', Series A and Series B, are mathematical journals specializing in combinatorics and related areas. They are published by Elsevier. ''Series A'' is concerned primarily with structures, designs, and applicati ...

, Series A'', Vol 160 (November 2018), pp. 409–445

References

External links

*
Personal web page

"Shaping Surfaces"

ideo IDEO () is a design and consulting firm with offices in the U.S., England, Germany, Japan, and China. It was founded in Palo Alto, California, in 1991. The company's 700 staff uses a design thinking approach to design products, services, enviro ...

Address to National Museum of Mathematics (MoMath) on December 3, 2014 {{DEFAULTSORT:Goodman-Strauss, Chaim Mathematics popularizers Recreational mathematicians 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians People from Austin, Texas University of Texas at Austin College of Liberal Arts alumni University of Arkansas faculty Geometers Mathematical artists Scientific illustrators Combinatorialists Topologists 1967 births Living people