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The Stanford Mathematics Research Center presents Paper Geometry and Optimization, a lecture given by Richard Schwartz, Chancellor's Professor of Mathematics at Brown University, as part of the MRC Public Lecture series.

Paper geometry deals with folding or gently bending sheets of paper to make various kinds of objects in space. Once you are able to make a certain kind of object out of paper, like a Möbius band, a natural question arises: How geometrically simple can you make it? In this talk I will survey some results and unsolved problems in this area. In particular, I will sketch some of the ideas of my two main results about these things: the shortest strip of paper you need to make a paper Möbius band and the fewest number of folds you need to make an origami donut surface.

Richard Schwartz is the Chancellor’s Professor of Mathematics at Brown University. His research interests include geometry, topology, dynamics, and computing. He often likes to work on simply-stated geometric problems about which little is known, often with the help of graphical user interfaces he writes himself. He has been invited twice (a rare distinction) to address the International Congress of Mathematicians (2002 and 2022). In addition to his mathematical research, he has written and illustrated a number of picture books, including You Can Count on Monsters, Really Big Numbers (Winner of the 2015 MSRI Mathical Books for Kids Award), Gallery of the Infinite, Life on the Infinite Farm and Man Versus Dog.

This lecture is free and open to the public.

See the full event poster here.

You can find more information about speaker Richard Schwartz on his webpage.