David Smith

David Smith is an amateur mathematician and retired print technician from Bridlington, Yorkshire, England, who is best known for his discoveries related to aperiodic monotiles that helped to solve the einstein problem.

Einstein tile Initial discovery Smith discovered a 13-sided polygon in November 2022 whilst using a software package called PolyForm Puzzle Solver to experiment with different shapes. After further experimentation using cardboard cut-outs, he realised that the shape appeared to tessellate but seemingly without ever achieving a regular pattern. Myers realised that "the hat" and "the turtle" were in fact a part of the same continuum of shapes, which possessed the same aperiodic tiling properties but with sides of varying lengths.

Smith emailed Kaplan less than a week after posting of their preprint informing him of the apparent properties of a new shape. This shape, nicknamed "the spectre", was found at the midpoint of the team's spectrum of shapes published in their paper. It was an anomaly within the spectrum of shapes as it produced a periodic pattern when tiled with its reflection. However, Smith had discovered that it would produce an aperiodic pattern when tiled without its reflection.

The team worked on a proof that confirmed the chiral aperiodic tiling property of "the spectre" and published a preprint paper in May 2023.

In 2024, their results were published in consecutive issues of Combinatorial Theory.