Thomas C. Hull is an associate professor of mathematics at

Western New England University Western New England University is a private university in Springfield, Massachusetts. Academic programs are provided through its College of Arts and Sciences, College of Business, College of Engineering, School of Law, and College of Pharmacy a ...

and is known for his expertise in the

mathematics of paper folding The discipline of origami or paper folding has received a considerable amount of mathematical study. Fields of interest include a given paper model's flat-foldability (whether the model can be flattened without damaging it), and the use of paper f ...

Career

Hull was an undergraduate at

Hampshire College Hampshire College is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. It was opened in 1970 as an experiment in alternative education, in association with four other colleges in the Pioneer Valley: Amherst College, Smith College, Mo ...

. He earned a master's degree and Ph.D. in mathematics at the

University of Rhode Island The University of Rhode Island (URI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Kingston, Rhode Island, United States. It is the flagship public research as well as the land-grant university of the state of Rhode Island ...

. His 1997 dissertation, ''Some Problems in List Coloring Bipartite Graphs'', involved

graph coloring In graph theory, graph coloring is a special case of graph labeling; it is an assignment of labels traditionally called "colors" to elements of a graph subject to certain constraints. In its simplest form, it is a way of coloring the vertices ...

, and was supervised by Nancy Eaton. Prior to his appointment at Western New England, Hull taught at

Merrimack College Merrimack College is a private Augustinian university in North Andover, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1947 by the Order of St. Augustine with an initial goal to educate World War II veterans. Its campus has grown to a campus with nearly 40 ...

. He has also taught at the

Hampshire College Summer Studies in Mathematics Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire is ...

for many years: as junior staff from 1991 to 1995, and as senior staff in 1998 to 2007. Since 2013, he has taught at MathILy, an intensive residential summer program for mathematically excellent high school students. Hull was a member of the board of directors of origami association

OrigamiUSA OrigamiUSA (sometimes abbreviated as "OUSA") is the largest origami organization in the United States, with offices located at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. It was founded in 1980 by Michael Shall, Alice Gray, Lillian Opp ...

from 1995 to 2008.

Author

Hull is the author or co-author of several books on origami, including: *''Origametry: Mathematical Methods in Paper Folding'' (Cambridge University Press, 2021) *''Project Origami: Activities for Exploring Mathematics'' (AK Peters, 2006; 2nd ed., CRC Press, 2013) *''Russian Origami: 40 Original Models Designed by the Top Folders in the Former Soviet Union'' (with Sergei Afonkin, St. Martin's Press, 1998) *''Origami, Plain and Simple'' (with

Robert E. Neale Robert Edward Neale (born June 23, 1929) is an American minister, psychologist, paperfolder and magician, who wrote several books on the combination of these topics. Education and career Neale was born in Mount Clemens, Michigan, on June 23, 192 ...

, St. Martin's Press, 1994) He is also featured in the 2010 origami documentary ''

Between the Folds ''Between the Folds'' is a 2008 film documentary about origami. Directed by Vanessa Gould and broadcast on Independent Lens, the film received a 2010 Peabody Award. Notable origami artists featured in the film include Erik and Martin Demain ...

''.

Awards and honors

With

Tomohiro Tachi Tomohiro Tachi ( ja, 舘知宏, born 1982) is a Japanese academic who studies origami from an interdisciplinary perspective, combining approaches from the mathematics of paper folding, structural rigidity, computational geometry, architecture, ...

of the

University of Tokyo , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...

, Hull was the recipient of the 2016 A. T. Yang Memorial Award in Theoretical Kinematics of the

American Society of Mechanical Engineers The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) is an American professional association that, in its own words, "promotes the art, science, and practice of multidisciplinary engineering and allied sciences around the globe" via "continuing ...

, for their joint work on predicting the motion of

rigid origami Rigid origami is a branch of origami which is concerned with folding structures using flat rigid sheets joined by hinges. That is, unlike in traditional origami, the panels of the paper cannot be bent during the folding process; they must remain ...

patterns when forces are applied to them in their flat state.;

References

External links

Home pageGoogle scholar profileOrigami videos on YoutubeInnovative Math: from Origami to Calculus
Report from a visit of Hull to

Phillips Exeter Academy (not for oneself) la, Finis Origine Pendet (The End Depends Upon the Beginning) gr, Χάριτι Θεοῦ (By the Grace of God) , location = 20 Main Street , city = Exeter, New Hampshire , zipcode ...

, April 14, 2009.
MathILy Website
Living people Origami artists 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians Geometers Hampshire College alumni University of Rhode Island alumni Western New England University faculty Mathematical artists Year of birth missing (living people) {{Mathematics of paper folding