Martin Demaine

{{short description|American artist and mathematician}}

Martin L. (Marty) Demaine (born 1942Author information in National Library of Australia [http://nla.gov.au/anbd.bib-an42254624 catalog entry for A lifetime of puzzles : a collection of puzzles in honor of Martin Gardner's 90th birthday] (A K Peters, 2008, {{ISBN|978-1-56881-245-8}}), edited by Demaine et al.) is an artist and mathematician, the Angelika and Barton Weller artist in residence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).{{citation|url=http://www.eecs.mit.edu/AY04-05/announcements/25.html|title=Martin Demaine appointed EECS Artist-in-Residence|publisher=MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science|date=February 25, 2005|postscript=|access-date=August 27, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100603223927/http://www.eecs.mit.edu/AY04-05/announcements/25.html|archive-date=June 3, 2010|url-status=dead}}.

File:Erik Demaine et al 2005 cropped.jpg demonstrate a card trick (June 2005)]]

Demaine attended Medford High School in Medford, Massachusetts. After studying glassblowing in England, he began his artistic career by blowing art glass in New Brunswick in the early 1970s.[http://mccainartgallery.com/2007/Fluency.htm "Fluency", past exhibitions] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110714055813/http://mccainartgallery.com/2007/Fluency.htm |date=2011-07-14 }}, Andrew and Laura McCain Art Gallery, Florenceville, New Brunswick, Canada, retrieved 2009-08-22. The Demaine Studio, located in Miramichi Bay and later at Opus Village in Mactaquac, was the first one-man glass studio in Canada,{{citation|title=In Touch with the Tides : Canadian Glassblower Jon Sawyer|journal=The World and I|volume=18|first=Stephen|last=Henkin|date=October 2003|url=http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-1222755/In-Touch-With-the-Tides.html|postscript=}}. Jon Sawyer was an apprentice of Demaine at Mactaquac beginning in 1977. 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[http://martindemaine.org/cv.pdf Curriculum vitae] from Demaine's web site. including the Canadian Museum of Civilization[http://www.civilization.ca/cmc/exhibitions/hist/verre/vedec01e.shtml Glass and glass-making in Canada - Inspirational glass]. Canadian Museum of Civilization. Retrieved 2009-08-22. and the National Gallery of Canada. Since joining MIT, Demaine has begun blowing glass again, as an instructor at the MIT Glass Lab;[http://web.mit.edu/glasslab/peeps_marty.html The MIT Glass Lab: Martin Demaine]. his newer work features innovative glassblowing techniques intended as a puzzle to his fellow glassblowers.{{citation|title='Puzzles Will Save The World.' Martin Demaine is kidding, mostly, when he says this, but his puzzles have made cars safer, candies easier to unwrap, and maybe one day will help cure diseases|journal=Boston Globe|url=http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2007/06/24/puzzles_will_save_the_world/|first=Amy|last=Karafin|date=June 24, 2007|postscript=}}.

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.{{citation|contribution=Algorithms Meet Art, Puzzles and Magic|last=Demaine|first=Erik|title=Proc. Algorithms and Data Structures Symposium (WADS 2009), Banff, Canada|series=Lecture Notes in Computer Science|volume=5664|year=2009|publisher=Springer-Verlag|postscript=}}. 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,{{citation|title=Road Scholar Finds Home at MIT|last=Barry|first=Ellen|journal=Boston Globe|date=February 17, 2002|postscript=}}.{{citation|title=Erik Demaine|publisher=Homeschooling Teen Magazine|date=March 20, 2009|url=http://www.homeschoolingteen.com/2009/03/erik-demaine-math-wizard/|postscript=}}. making him the youngest professor ever hired by MIT.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/15/science/15origami.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5090&en=7c6938eb4b440672&ex=1266210000&partner=rssuserland|title=Origami as the Shape of Things to Come|last=Wertheim|first=Margaret|work=New York Times|date=February 15, 2005}}

The two Demaines continue to work closely together and have many joint works of both mathematics and art,[http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2003/demaine-father-1008.html Father and son share love of art, computer science], MIT Tech Talk, October 8, 2003. including three pieces of mathematical origami in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York,[http://erikdemaine.org/curved/ Curved Origami Sculpture], from the web site of Erik Demaine. Retrieved 2009-08-22. and another three in the permanent collection of the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Museum.{{cite web|url=https://americanart.si.edu/artist/erik-demaine-29943|title=Erik Demaine|work=Artists|publisher=Smithsonian American Art Museum|access-date=2022-09-18}} 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. 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.A Lifetime of Puzzles: A Collection of Puzzles in Honor of Martin Gardner's 90th Birthday (AK Peters). {{ISBN | 9781568812458}} Father and son are both featured in the movie Between the Folds, a documentary on modern origami.

Demaine is a dual citizen of Canada and the United States.