Martin Demaine

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 (MIT).^[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 caused Erik to be awarded 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] and another three in the permanent collection of the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Museum.^[15] 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 were fans of Martin Gardner and in 2001 they teamed up with Gathering 4 Gardner founder Tom M. Rodgers to edit a tribute book for Gardner on his 90th birthday.^[16] Father and son are both featured in the movie Between the Folds, a documentary on modern origami.