Daina Taimina

Who is Daina Taimina?

Daina Taimina is a Latvian mathematician, currently Adjunct Associate Professor at Cornell University, known for crocheting objects to illustrate hyperbolic space. She received all her formal education in Riga, Latvia, where in 1977 she graduated summa cum laude from the University of Latvia and completed her graduate work in theoretical computer science in 1990. At that time, a doctoral thesis had to be defended outside of Latvia, so she defended hers in Minsk. This explains the fact that formally Taimina's doctorate was issued by the Institute of Mathematics of the Belorussian Academy of Sciences. After Latvia regained independence in 1991, Taimina received her doctorate in mathematics from the University of Latvia, where she taught for 20 years.

Daina Taimina joined the Cornell Math Department in December 1996. While attending a geometry workshop in 1997, she saw fragile paper models of hyperbolic planes, designed by geometer William Thurston. She decided to make more durable models, and did so by crocheting them. Due to her success in this she was invited, together with her husband David Henderson, a math professor also at Cornell, to give a presentation at a Cornell workshop. Crocheted mathematical models later appeared in three geometry textbooks they wrote together, of which the most popular is Experiencing Geometry: Euclidean and non-Euclidean with History.