Edmund Orme Harriss (born 1976 in Worcester, UK) is a British mathematician,^[1] writer^[2] and artist.^[3] Since 2010 he has been at the Fulbright College of Arts & Sciences at The University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Arkansas where he is an Assistant Professor of Arts & Sciences (ARSC) and Mathematical Sciences (MASC). He does research in the Geometry of Tilings and Patterns,^[4] a branch of Convex and Discrete Geometry.^[5] He is the discoverer of the spiral that bears his name.^[6]

Education and career

Harriss earned a Master of Mathematics at the University of Warwick (2000) and then obtained his PhD at Imperial College London (2003) with the dissertation "On Canonical Substitution Tilings" under Jeroen Lamb.^[7]

Harriss has been a speaker at FSCONS, a Nordic Free software conference.^[8]

Harriss is active on Numberphile where he has given talks on Heesch numbers, Tribonacci numbers, the Rauzy fractal and the plastic ratio.^[9]

In May and June 2020 Harriss was a visiting fellow at The Institute for Advanced Study of Aix-Marseille University (IMéRA) where he studied the possibilities of visual and spatial models and animations to illustrate a wide variety of mathematical ideas.^[10]

Mathematical art

Sculpture made from flat materials using the curvahedra invented by Harris^[11]

The Gauss–Bonnet theorem gives the relationship between the curvature of a surface and the amount of turning as you traverse the surface’s boundary.^[12] Harriss used this theorem to invent shapes called Curvahedra which were then incorporated into sculpture.^[13] Scientists at MIT are investigating ways in which curvahedra may have applications in construction.^[14]

Art and mathematics are intertwined in Harris's work.^[4] He uses public art to demonstrate deep mathematical ideas^[14] and his academic work frequently involves the visualization of mathematics.^[15] Mathematically themed sculptures by Harriss have been installed at Oklahoma State University,^[16] at the University of Arkansas,^[17][18] and at Imperial College London.^[4]

Combining his interest in art and mathematical tilings he is one of 24 mathematicians and artists who make up the Mathemalchemy Team.^[19][20]

Harriss Spiral

The Harriss Spiral

Harriss noticed that the golden ratio is just one example of a more general idea: In how many ways can a rectangle be divided into squares and rectangles? The golden ratio results when a rectangle is divided into a one square and one similar rectangle. But by varying the number of squares and sub-rectangles, we arrive at what Harriss calls "proportion systems". The solutions in all cases are algebraic numbers and the golden ratio is just one of them.^[21]

"The golden ratio is this incredibly well-explored corner of a whole city,” he said. “I wanted to give signposts to other locations in that city."^[6]

Harriss investigated the next simplest case, dividing a rectangle into one square and two similar rectangles. The ratio that emerged in this case is the so-called plastic ratio.^[22] The golden spiral is closely related to the first case, dissection into one square and one similar rectangle. Harriss applied the same idea to this second case and discovered a new fractal spiral related to the plastic ratio and since named after him.^[6]

Selected publications

References

External links

• Edmund O. Harriss website