Doris Schattschneider facts for kids

Doris J. Schattschneider is an American mathematician. She used to be a professor of mathematics at Moravian College. She is famous for her work on tessellations. These are patterns made of shapes that fit together without gaps.

Doris Schattschneider also wrote about the art of M. C. Escher. He was a well-known artist who used tessellations in his amazing drawings. She helped share the discoveries of Marjorie Rice, an amateur mathematician. Marjorie found new ways to tile surfaces using pentagons. Doris also helped create a computer program called The Geometer's Sketchpad. This program helps students learn about geometry.

About Doris Schattschneider

Early Life and Education

Doris Schattschneider was born on October 19, 1939, in Staten Island, New York. Her mother, Charlotte, taught Latin. Her father, Robert, was an electrical engineer. During World War II, her family moved to Lake Placid, New York. Her father worked for the U.S. Army there.

Doris started school in Lake Placid. After the war, her family moved back to Staten Island. She studied mathematics at the University of Rochester. Later, she earned her Ph.D. from Yale University in 1966. Her main teachers were Tsuneo Tamagawa and Ichirô Satake.

Teaching Career and Contributions

After finishing her studies, Doris taught at Northwestern University. She also taught at the University of Illinois at Chicago. In 1968, she joined the faculty at Moravian College. She taught there for 34 years until she retired.

Doris Schattschneider was the first woman to be an editor for Mathematics Magazine. She held this important role from 1981 to 1985. She was married to David A. Schattschneider for 54 years. They had a daughter named Laura Ellen Schattschneider.

Doris Schattschneider and Marjorie Rice

Discovering New Tilings

Marjorie Rice was a mother of five from San Diego. She loved mathematics, even though she wasn't a professional. She became very interested in tessellations. These are patterns that cover a surface without any gaps or overlaps.

Marjorie learned about pentagon tilings from an article by Martin Gardner. She started her own research. By February 1976, she had found a completely new type of pentagon tiling. She even created her own way to write down her discoveries.

Validating and Sharing Discoveries

Marjorie drew many new tessellations. She sent her findings to Martin Gardner, a famous science writer. Martin Gardner then sent Marjorie's work to Doris Schattschneider. Doris was an expert in tiling patterns.

At first, Doris was a bit unsure. But after looking closely, she saw that Marjorie's discoveries were real and important. Doris helped Martin Gardner share Marjorie's new pentagon tilings with the world. She praised Marjorie's work as a big discovery by someone who wasn't a professional mathematician.

A Special Recognition

In 1995, there was a meeting of mathematicians in Los Angeles. Doris Schattschneider convinced Marjorie Rice and her husband to come. Doris gave a speech about Marjorie's amazing work.

At the end of her talk, Doris introduced Marjorie Rice. Everyone in the room stood up and clapped for Marjorie. It was a wonderful moment to celebrate her contributions to mathematics.

Awards and Honors

Doris Schattschneider has received many awards for her work.

• In 1979, she won the Mathematical Association of America's Carl B. Allendoerfer Award. This was for her excellent article "Tiling the plane with congruent pentagons."
• In 1993, she received the Deborah and Franklin Haimo Award. This award recognizes great teaching in college mathematics.
• In 2012, she became a fellow of the American Mathematical Society. This is a high honor for mathematicians.
• In August 2021, she gave the Martin Gardner Lecture at MathFest. This lecture honors Martin Gardner's contributions to mathematics.

Selected Publications

Doris Schattschneider has written and edited many books and articles.

Books

• M. C. Escher Kaleidocycles (with Wallace Walker), 1977
• Visions of Symmetry: Notebooks, Periodic Drawings, and Related Work of M. C. Escher, 1990

  Revised as M. C. Escher: Visions of Symmetry, 2004

• A Companion to Calculus (with Dennis Ebersole, Alicia Sevilla, and Kay Somers), 1995

Edited volumes

• Geometry Turned On!: Dynamic Software in Learning, Teaching, and Research (with James King), 1997
• M.C. Escher's Legacy: A Centennial Celebration (with Michelle Emmer), 2003

Articles

• "One Corona is Enough for the Euclidean Plane," coauthored with Nikolai Dolbilin, 1998.

  You can find more information on the accompanying website: Catalog of Isohedral Tilings by Symmetric Polygonal Tiles