Alan Hugh Schoen

ABOUT ALAN HUGH SCHOEN

American physicist and computer scientist known for his discovery of a triply periodic minimal surface called the gyroid. His career in physics was spent working for aerospace engineering companies including NASA, and later as a professor for multiple universities.

He studied physics at Yale University and later earned a PhD in physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

His publications include different geometric images and puzzles, a game called Rombix, and a website for geometric structures. He played the violin. He held US patents for six of his inventions.

He grew up in Illinois with his parents and siblings; Donald, Homer, and Alice. He and his wife Reiko had three children named Cathy, Andrew, and Alison.

At Southern Illinois University Carbondale , he worked at the same department office that Buckminster Fuller had.