Henry Segerman

Henry Segerman (born 1979 in Manchester, UK) is an Associate Professor of mathematics at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma who does research in three-dimensional geometry and topology, especially three-manifolds, triangulations and hyperbolic geometry.

He was the first person to publish a book on mathematical 3D printing, and is also a recreational mathematician and mathematical artist with expertise in virtual reality.IVRPA Profile: Henry Segerman
International Virtual Reality Professionals Association (IVRPA) His frequent collaborators include Vi Hart, Elisabetta Matsumoto and Saul Schleimer.Pumpkin geometry: stunning shadow sculptures that illuminate an ancient mathematical technique
by Alex Bellos, The Guardian, 2014-10-30Ornes, Stephen;
Math Art: Truth, Beauty, and Equations
' Sterling Publishing (2019), "Projections" (Section 14)

Education and career

Segerman received his Master of Mathematics (MS) at the University of Oxford (2001) and then his PhD at Stanford University (2007) for the dissertation "Incompressible Surfaces in Hyperbolic Punctured Torus Bundles are Strongly Detected" under Steven Paul Kerckhoff.

He was a Lecturer at the University of Texas at Austin (2007–2010) and was a Research Fellow at University of Melbourne (2010–2013). He became an Assistant Professor at Oklahoma State University (2013–2018) and then an Associate Professor there in 2018 until the present.Henry Segerman
The Bridges Organization: Mathematical Art Galleries

Segerman's research lends itself to mathematics with a strong visual component. This led directly to his involvement with 3D printing. In 2016 he wrote the book ''Visualizing Mathematics With 3D Printing.''Visualizing Mathematics With 3D Printing by Henry Segerman
reviewed by Laura Taalman, The American Mathematical Monthly, 22 Mar 2018, pp. 379-384 Laura Taalman in a review said, "Segerman's book is an inside tour of mathematics with breathtaking 3D-printed scenery."

3D printing

Mathematicians used to rely on wooden or plaster models to visualizing complex geometrical shapes. Nowadays, if they can be described mathematically, we can "print" them with 3D printers.Can’t Imagine Shapes in 4 Dimensions? Just Print Them Out
By Luke Whelan, ''Wired'', Nov 15, 2016 Segerman uses mathematical tools including quaternions,Nothing Is More Fun than a Hypercube of Monkeys
By Evelyn Lamb, ''Scientific American'', May 19, 2014 Euclidean and non-Euclidean geometries and stereographic projection to create instructions for 3D printers. Sometimes the goal is to produce a work of art.Fresh Off the 3D Printer: Henry Segerman’s Mathematical Sculptures
By Megan Gambino, Smithsonian Magazine, March 15, 2013 Sometimes it is to shed light on four-dimensional geometry or some other field such as mathematical group theory. Sometimes it is both. One of his sculptures depicts a set of monkeys joined together to form a 4-dimensional hypercube.Artist Uses 3-D Printing to Create 'Shadows' of 4-D Objects
NBC News: Weird Science, February 16, 2015,

Segerman's techniques help us visualize a four dimensional world.3D printing mathematics
by Saul Schleimer and Henry Segerman, Plus Magazine, Millennium Mathematics Project Just as the frame of a cube can cast a shadow on a flat wall, Segerman makes analogous shadows of four dimensional objects via a 3D printer.Mathematicians at Play: 3-D Printing Enters the 4th Dimension
By Evelyn Lamb, ''Scientific American'', October 31, 2012Sculptures cast shadows from the fourth dimension
By Aviva Rutkin, New Scientist, 15 February 2015 Segerman has also explored kinetic artwork, designing mechanisms that move in unusual or seemingly paradoxical ways.

Recreational mathematics

Segerman has appeared as a recreational mathematician at Gathering 4 Gardner conferences and is a frequent contributor to Numberphile.

Combining his interests in mathematics and art he is one of 24 mathematicians and artists who make up the Mathemalchemy Team.

In another foray into recreational mathematics Segerman founded Dice Lab with mathematical artist Robert Fathauer. Using computer search and help from fellow recreational mathematician Robert Bosch, they created a "numerically balanced" 120-sided die. It is the "biggest, most complex fair die possible". They concede that the die is "expensive and there’s no real use for it", but it still theoretically interesting.
The Mind-Boggling Challenge of Designing 120-Sided Dice
' Wired Magazine, May 10, 2016

Selected papers

Segerman does research in three-dimensional geometry and topology. Papers published in this area include:
* 2020
Ray-marching Thurston geometries
, arXiv:2010.15801 ath.GT, cs.GR, math.DS ith Coulon, Matsumoto and Trettel October 2020
* 2010
Veering triangulations admit strict angle structures
ith Hodgson, Rubinstein and TillmannGeometry & Topology, November 2010, 15(4)
* 2015
1-efficient triangulations and the index of a cusped hyperbolic 3-manifold
, ith Garoufalidis, Hodgson and Rubinstein Geometry & Topology 19 (2015), pp. 2619–2689

A second major interest, with some overlap, is mathematical visualization & art. Papers published in this area include:
* 2014
The Quaternion Group as a Symmetry Group
, ith Vi Hart Proceedings of Bridges 2014: Mathematics, pp. 143–150
* 2012
3D printing for mathematical visualisation
, Math. Intell. 34(4) December 2012, pp. 56–62

Awards

* The paper "The Quaternion Group as a Symmetry Group" (with Vi Hart) was republished in The Best Writing on Mathematics 2015.
* The video
Non-Euclidean Virtual Reality Using Ray-Marching
was a winner in the 2019 We Are Mathematics Video Competition.2019 Winners
We Are Mathematics Video Competition!

References

External links

Henry Segerman website
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Segerman, Henry
Living people
1979 births
21st-century English mathematicians
21st-century American mathematicians
3D printing specialists
Recreational mathematicians
Mathematics popularizers
Stanford University alumni
Alumni of the University of Oxford
Oklahoma State University faculty
University of Texas at Austin faculty