Tadashi Tokieda (Japanese: 時枝正; born 1968) is a Japanese mathematician, working in mathematics and physics. He is a professor of mathematics at Stanford University; he formerly was a fellow and Director of Studies of Mathematics at Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He also invents, collects, and studies toys that uniquely reveal and explore real-world surprises of mathematics and physics. In comparison with most mathematicians, he had an unusual path in life: he started as a painter, and then became a classical philologist, before transitioning to mathematics. Tokieda is known for his public lectures where he demonstrates mathematical phenomena.
Source: “Tadashi Tokieda”, English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0), excerpt