Kōryō Miura (Japanese: 三浦 公亮, born 1930)[1] is a Japanese astrophysicist, inventor, and origamist known for the Miura fold. He is a professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo[2] and at the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science.

Miura fold edit

 
The Miura fold

In the 1970s, Miura began working with Masamori Sakamaki on deployable surfaces, developing what became known as the Miura fold. This is a method of rigidly folding a flat surface, using a crease pattern subdividing the surface into parallelograms, so that it fits into a much smaller volume. Miura originally intended this method to be used in spacecraft for deployable membranes such as solar panel arrays,[3] but it has since found many other applications including in cartography, surgical devices, flat-foldable furniture, and electrical storage.[4]

Book edit

With Sergio Pellegrino of Caltech, Miura is the author of the book Forms and Concepts for Lightweight Structures (Cambridge University Press, 2020).

Recognition edit

Miura was named an honorary member of the International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures (IASS) in 2009, "for the invention of Miura-ori and many original developments in the field of space structures".[1] He is also an honorary member of the International Society for the Interdisciplinary Study of Symmetry (SIS).[5] His work with Tomohiro Tachi on flexible polyhedra derived from the Miura fold won the 2013 Tsuboi Award of the IASS.[6]

References edit

  1. ^ a b "Annual Letter from the President", Journal of the International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures, 50 (3): 131–132, 2009
  2. ^ "Dr. Koryo Miura", Google Arts & Culture, retrieved 2021-06-19
  3. ^ Bain, Ian (1980), "The Miura-Ori map", New Scientist. Reproduced in British Origami, 1981, and online at the British Origami Society web site.
  4. ^ Griggs, Mary Beth (28 January 2016), "Origami-Like Shape Could Help With Interior Design, Future Surgeries", Popular Science
  5. ^ "Honorary members of the society", SIS-Symmetry Activities and Officers, International Society for the Interdisciplinary Study of Symmetry, retrieved 2021-06-18
  6. ^ Tsuboi Award Recipients, International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures, retrieved 2021-06-18