Mark Allen Sherman of Pasadena, California is a biochemist

Biochemist

Biochemists are scientists who are trained in biochemistry. Typical biochemists study chemical processes and chemical transformations in living organisms. The prefix of "bio" in "biochemist" can be understood as a fusion of "biological chemist."-Role:...

 (PhD) and prominent string figure

String figure

A string figure is a design formed by manipulating string on, around, and using one's fingers or sometimes between the fingers of multiple people. String figures may also involve the use of the mouth, wrist, and feet. They may consist of singular images or be created and altered as a game, known as...

 enthusiast. His editing and writing led to the publishing of Kwakiutl String Figures by Julia Averkieva

Julia Averkieva

Julia Pavlovna Petrova-Averkieva was a Soviet anthropologist and string figure collector. A student of Franz Boas, and influenced by Lewis Henry Morgan, she was the eventual director of North American Studies at the Institute of Ethnography in Moscow...

, "the most comprehensive Native American string figure collection ever assembled from a single tribe," (or nation

First Nations

First Nations is a term that collectively refers to various Aboriginal peoples in Canada who are neither Inuit nor Métis. There are currently over 630 recognised First Nations governments or bands spread across Canada, roughly half of which are in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. The...

) the Kwakwaka'wakw

Kwakwaka'wakw

The Kwakwaka'wakw are an Indigenous group of First Nations peoples, numbering about 5,500, who live in British Columbia on northern Vancouver Island and the adjoining mainland and islands.Kwakwaka'wakw translates as "Those who speak Kwak'wala", describing the collective nations within the area that...

. He founded ISFA Press in 1993, co-edited and illustrated String Figure Magazine from 1996-2005, and has been editor of the Bulletin of the International String Figure Association

International String Figure Association

The International String Figure Association is not-for-profit organization for the preservation, dissemination, and creation of string figures. The association was founded in 1978 by mathematician Hiroshi Noguchi and Anglican missionary Philip Noble, and is now run by Mark Sherman out of California...

, which he founded, since 1994.