The College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University will host the 2023 Pi Mu Epsilon conference on Friday and Saturday (April 14-15) in the Pellegrene Auditorium on the SJU campus. The two keynote talks at 8:30 p.m. Friday and 10:30 a.m. Saturday will be given by Thomas Hull, an associate professor of mathematics at Western New England University. He will speak about the mathematics of origami. 

Hull finished his Ph.D. in mathematics at the University of Rhode Island, with his dissertation on list coloring bipartite graphs. He now mostly studies the mathematics of origami (paper folding) and has recently been awarded a three-year research grant on “Configuration Spaces of Rigid Origami” by the National Science Foundation’s Directorate of Mathematical Sciences. 

Hull has authored a book, Origametry, Mathematical Methods in Paper Folding, published by Cambridge University Press in 2020. He has served as an instructor for MathILy, a summer enrichment program for high school students, and as director of the NSF-funded MathILy-EST REU program. In June 2021, he was featured as an origami expert in WIRED Magazine’s YouTube video “Origami in 5 Levels of Difficulty.” 

In addition to hosting the two talks given by a professional mathematician, the conference also provides an opportunity for undergraduate students to speak about research they have conducted and other mathematical activities in which they have engaged. These talks provide a great opportunity for the student speakers to share their work, for future researchers to find inspiration and for prospective students to see how mathematics can be a vibrant field of study. 

Pi Mu Epsilon is a national mathematics honor society that promotes scholarly activity in mathematics among academic institutions and recognizes students' mathematical achievements. 

Pi Mu Epsilon conference details can be found on the conference website.