CAS CONNECT 2015

31 S egerman, an assistant profes- sor with the Oklahoma State University Department of Mathematics, has turned his passion for and understanding of mathematics into 3-D works of art that are displayed in galleries across the country, including an exhibit at New York’s Stony Brook University last fall. Despite being what some might consider an established artist, Segerman doesn’t have any plans to quit his day job at OSU. He has always been inter- ested in visualizing abstract mathematical ideas — how theoretical objects can be represented in a three-dimensional space. Easier access to 3-D printing has allowed him to turn his interests into reality and provides a way to share his passion with the public. “With 3-D printing, we can make models that we can touch and play with,” Segerman says. “You can show somebody one of these models and even if they don’t understand everything, they know there’s something cool there that they haven’t seen before. Hopefully it will at least get people interested in the topic.” Segerman grew up in Manchester, England, and received his master’s in mathematics from Oxford University. The Art of 3-D Mathematics One man’s passion results in a beautiful blending of arts and sciences STORY BY Jamie Hadwin | PORTRAIT BY Phil Shockley / UNIVERSITY MARKETING CONTINUES Warhol. Picasso. Pollack. All common names in big-city art galleries. But OSU’s Henry Segerman? He came to the United States where he received his doctorate in mathematics from Stanford University. After complet- ing post-doctoral work at the University of Texas and the University of Melbourne, he found his way to OSU. When OSU Regents Professor and mathematics department head Dr. William “Bus” Jaco looked at Segerman’s back- ground and areas of interest, he began working to get the Englishman to OSU. “I convinced him to join OSU before finishing his post-doc in Australia,” says Jaco, who is internationally known in geometric topology. “We’re both very strong in hyperbolic geometry. We have different approaches to the same kind of problems, but we complement each other.” Segerman’s research is often published in the more traditional mathematics jour- nals, but there are growing contributions to blending math with art. Segerman attends annual conferences and contrib- utes to academic journals such as the Journal of the Mathematics and Arts. While mathematics as a science requires creativity in itself, sometimes Segerman must think outside the box with his 3-D models, as they don’t always turn out like he anticipates.