The Essentials

Cornelian Daina Taimina, a retiree and an adjunct associate professor in the math department, recently won an unusual prize for an unusual project: blending mathematics and crocheting. Her book, titled “Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes,” earned a British award called the Diagram Prize after a public vote run by Bookseller magazine. Taimina combines her mathematics [...]

Mathematician and Cornell adjunct professor Daina Taimina discovered 13 years ago that her handiness at crochet, a vestige of her Latvian schooling, is a perfect medium for describing one of the hardest-to-grasp concepts in geometry – the hyperbolic plane. Taimina has been interviewed on NPR and exhibited her work – colorful yarn creations of all [...]