Nathan Michael Dunfield (born 1975) is an American mathematician, specializing in

Topology Topology (from the Greek language, Greek words , and ) is the branch of mathematics concerned with the properties of a Mathematical object, geometric object that are preserved under Continuous function, continuous Deformation theory, deformat ...

Career

Dunfield did his undergraduate studies at

Oregon State University Oregon State University (OSU) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Corvallis, Oregon, United States. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate degree programs and a variety of graduate and doctor ...

, obtaining a B.S. in mathematics in 1994. For his graduate studies, he went to the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

, obtaining his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in 1999, with a thesis on ''Cyclic Surgery, Degrees of Maps of Character Curves, and Volume Rigidity for Hyperbolic Manifolds'' written under the supervision of

Peter Shalen Peter B. Shalen (born c. 1946) is an American mathematician, working primarily in low-dimensional topology. He is the "S" in JSJ decomposition. Life He graduated from Stuyvesant High School in 1962, and went on to earn a B.A. from Harvard Coll ...

and Melvin Rothenberg. He then was a Benjamin Peirce Assistant Professor at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

(1999–2003) and an associate professor at the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small group of institutes ...

(2003–2007), after which he moved to the

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. Established in 1867, it is the f ...

, where he was promoted to professor in 2018.

Work

Dunfield is an expert in

group theory In abstract algebra, group theory studies the algebraic structures known as group (mathematics), groups. The concept of a group is central to abstract algebra: other well-known algebraic structures, such as ring (mathematics), rings, field ( ...

low-dimensional topology In mathematics, low-dimensional topology is the branch of topology that studies manifolds, or more generally topological spaces, of four or fewer dimensions. Representative topics are the theory of 3-manifolds and 4-manifolds, knot theory, ...

, three-manifolds, and

computational A computation is any type of arithmetic or non-arithmetic calculation that is well-defined. Common examples of computation are mathematical equation solving and the execution of computer algorithms. Mechanical or electronic devices (or, historic ...

aspects of these fields. He is also, with

Marc Culler Marc Edward Culler (born November 22, 1953) is an American mathematician who works in geometric group theory and low-dimensional topology. A native Californian, Culler did his undergraduate work at the University of California at Santa Barbara and ...

, one of the key developers of the program SnapPy, the modern version of Jeffrey Weeks' program

SnapPea SnapPea is free software designed to help mathematicians, in particular low-dimensional topologists, study hyperbolic 3-manifolds. The primary developer is Jeffrey Weeks, who created the first version as part of his doctoral thesis, supervise ...

. Dunfield is an editor for the ''

New York Journal of Mathematics The ''New York Journal of Mathematics'' is a peer-reviewed journal focusing on algebra, analysis, geometry and topology. Its editorial board, , consists of 17 university-affiliated scholars in addition to the Editor-in-chief. Articles in the ''New ...

''.New York Journal of Mathematics
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Selected publications

* Dunfield, Nathan; Gukov, Sergei; Rasmussen, Jake; ''The superpolynomial for knot homologies.''

Experimental Mathematics Experimental mathematics is an approach to mathematics in which computation is used to investigate mathematical objects and identify properties and patterns. It has been defined as "that branch of mathematics that concerns itself ultimately with th ...

15 (2006), 129–159. math.GT/0505662. * Dunfield, Nathan; Calegari, Danny; ''Laminations and groups of homeomorphisms of the circle.''

Inventiones Mathematicae ''Inventiones Mathematicae'' is a mathematical journal published monthly by Springer Science+Business Media. It was established in 1966 and is regarded as one of the most prestigious mathematics journals in the world. The current (2023) managing ...

152 (2003) 149–207. math.GT/0203192. * Dunfield, Nathan; ''Cyclic surgery, degrees of maps of character curves, and volume rigidity for hyperbolic manifolds.''

136 (1999) 3, 623–657. math.GT/9802022.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dunfield, Nathan 21st-century American mathematicians American topologists Sloan Research Fellows 1975 births Living people Fellows of the American Mathematical Society Institute for Advanced Study visiting scholars Mathematicians from Michigan People from Ann Arbor, Michigan Oregon State University alumni University of Chicago alumni California Institute of Technology faculty Harvard University Department of Mathematics faculty University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty