Robert Ammann

Robert Ammann (October 1, 1946 – May, 1994) was an amateur mathematician who made several significant and groundbreaking contributions to the theory of quasicrystals and aperiodic tilings.

After twelve years, his position was eliminated as part of a routine cutback, and Ammann ended up working as a mail sorter for a post office.

Ammann wrote a letter to Gardner, describing his own work, which duplicated one of Penrose's sets, plus a foursome of "golden rhombohedra" that formed aperiodic tilings in space.

The discovery of quasicrystals in 1982 changed the status of aperiodic tilings and Ammann's work from mere recreational mathematics to respectable academic research.

In 1981 de Bruijn exposed the cut and project method and in 1984 came the sensational news about Shechtman quasicrystals which promoted the Penrose tiling to fame.