Rona Gurkewitz

Advisory Board Member

she/her/hers

Rona Gurkewitz was drawn to mathematics early in life and discovered computer science and origami later. She worked with Lillian Oppenheimer and Laura Kruskal in the early days of popularizing origami in the United States. She is a creative folder, inventing original designs as well as new, mathematical ways of explaining complex modular models. She is the author of four published books, with co-author Bennett Arnstein, that have sold over 150,000 copies. She has given talks and workshops at conferences in the USA, the United Kingdom and Japan. Some of her designs are in the Mingei International Museum's permanent collection.

Rona earned BA and MA degrees in Mathematics from UCLA and MS and MPhil degrees in Computer Science from the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University. She taught in the Mathematics and Computer Science departments at Western Connecticut State University and has been the Computer Science department chair. She holds the title of Professor Emerita. Now living in Seattle, she still is teaching, part-time and remotely.

Rona looks forward to working with SUMM to share the excitement and beauty of mathematics, computing and origami.