Topology is the qualitative study of shapes and spaces by identifying and analyzing features that are unchanged when the object is continuously deformed — a “search for adjectives,” as Bill Thurston put it.
Topology took off at Cornell thanks to Paul Olum who joined the faculty in 1949 and built up a group including Israel Berstein, William Browder, Peter Hilton, and Roger Livesay. Together they founded the Cornell Topology Festival in 1962, which continues to be an annual event.
In the 1960s Cornell's topologists focused on algebraic topology, geometric topology, and connections with differential geometry. More recently, the interests of the group have also included low-dimensional topology, symplectic geometry, the geometric and combinatorial study of discrete groups, and dynamical systems.
Faculty Members
Daniel Halpern-Leistner | Algebraic geometry, homological algebra, mathematical physics, and representation theory |
Tara Holm | Symplectic geometry |
Martin Kassabov | Combinatorial group theory |
Kathryn Mann | Geometric topology |
Jason Manning | Geometric group theory, geometric topology |
Timothy Riley | Geometric group theory |
James E. West | Geometric topology, infinite-dimensional topology |
Inna Zakharevich | Algebraic topology and algebraic K-theory |
Emeritus and Other Faculty
Kenneth S. Brown | Algebra, topology, group theory |
Marshall M. Cohen | Topology, geometric (combinatorial) group theory |
Rhiannon Griffiths | Higher category theory, operads, applications of category theory to homotopy theory, and functor calculus |
Allen Hatcher | Geometric topology |
Nima Hoda | Geometric group theory |
Peter J. Kahn | Algebra, number theory, algebraic and differential topology |
Karen Vogtmann | Topology, geometric group theory |
Morgan Weiler | Geometry, topology |
Activities and Resources:
- The Cornell Topology Festival
- Topology and Geometric Group Theory Seminar
- What's Next? the mathematical legacy of Bill Thurston, June 23–27, 2014
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