Skye Rothstein
Published December 03, 2025
Hello! My name is Skye Rothstein, I’m from Brooklyn, and I arrived at the MPI MiS in September 2024 for a year-long fellowship in Érika Roldán’s group. I split my time at MPI between research, educational outreach, and social advocacy.
As a result of my research here, I recently published a paper on Changing the Topology of Polyominoids through Rigid Origami in the proceedings of the Bridges 2025 conference, and have given several talks and student workshops about this work. I have long been fascinated by geometry and enjoyed the art of paper folding, so this was a fun topic for me to work on. I’ve always been happy to hear that my enthusiasm and passion for the project are clear to my audience and students. If you visit the library, you can find a collection of my paper models displayed in the reading room exhibit. :)
During my time at MPI, I also worked on an entirely separate educational outreach project, with the company Imaginary, called Quantum Arcade. This project aims to teach mathematical concepts of quantum computing and inform the public about the potential impact this new technology will have on our future. Our two arcade video games were recently debuted at GamesCom in Köln and played by ~2000 people. A series of student workshops and a touring museum exhibit will begin September 2025.
In addition to science and education, I have always strived to incorporate advocacy for minorities and marginalized groups into my work. I coordinated a math outreach program for middle school girls when I was a student in university, and, while at MPI, I organized two conferences. Queer in Math Day in June 2025, which aimed to celebrate and strengthen the local community, and OURFAM in February 2025, with 35 speakers and 250+ participants worldwide — the Online Undergraduate Resource Fair for the Advancement and Alliance of Marginalized Mathematicians. I also served as Deputy Equal Opportunity Officer at MPI MiS.
Recently, I moved to TU Dresden to pursue a master's degree in Computational Modeling and Simulation in the Life Sciences with the support of a scholarship from SECAI. Dresden is not far away, so I hope to keep in close contact with my friends and colleagues in Leipzig!
