Starting from just a sheet of paper, by folding, stacking, crumpling, tearing, we shall explore a rich variety of phenomena, from magic tricks and geometry through elasticity and the traditional Japanese art of origami to medical devices and ‘h-principle’. Much of the lecture consists of table-top demos.
For International Day of Mathematics 2026, we welcomed Tadashi Tokieda from Stanford University to give our Friday night public lecture to a packed lecture theatre. Tadashi beautifully illustrated how, from a sheet of paper, a world of mathematical exploration and geometry unfolds! Watch the lecture below:
Watch the recording of the SMRI public lecture:
Photo gallery
Photos by Jayne Ion.
















