Ivan Smith is a British mathematician who deals with

symplectic manifold In differential geometry, a subject of mathematics, a symplectic manifold is a smooth manifold, M , equipped with a closed nondegenerate differential 2-form \omega , called the symplectic form. The study of symplectic manifolds is called s ...

s and their interaction with algebraic geometry,

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 structure theory of 3-manifolds and 4-manifolds, knot the ...

, and dynamics. He is a professor at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

Education and career

Smith was born in 1973 to Neil Smith, a professor of

linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Lingu ...

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = � ...

. Smith studied at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world's second-oldest university in contin ...

, where he received his doctorate in 1999 under the supervision of

Simon Donaldson Sir Simon Kirwan Donaldson (born 20 August 1957) is an English mathematician known for his work on the topology of smooth (differentiable) four-dimensional manifolds, Donaldson–Thomas theory, and his contributions to Kähler geometry. H ...

with thesis ''Symplectic Geometry of Lefschetz Fibrations''. Smith is now a professor in Cambridge at Gonville & Caius College. Among other things, Smith derived nodal invariants from

symplectic geometry Symplectic geometry is a branch of differential geometry and differential topology that studies symplectic manifolds; that is, differentiable manifolds equipped with a closed, nondegenerate 2-form. Symplectic geometry has its origins in the ...

. He received in 2007 the

Whitehead Prize The Whitehead Prize is awarded yearly by the London Mathematical Society to multiple mathematicians working in the United Kingdom who are at an early stage of their career. The prize is named in memory of homotopy theory pioneer J. H. C. Whitehea ...

for his work in symplectic topology (highlighting the breadth of applied techniques from algebraic geometry and topology)Whitehead Prize to Smith 2007
/ref> and in 2013 the

Adams Prize The Adams Prize is one of the most prestigious prizes awarded by the University of Cambridge. It is awarded each year by the Faculty of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge and St John's College to a UK-based mathematician for distingu ...

. In 2018 he was an invited speaker at the

International Congress of Mathematicians The International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) is the largest conference for the topic of mathematics. It meets once every four years, hosted by the International Mathematical Union (IMU). The Fields Medals, the Nevanlinna Prize (to be rename ...

in Rio de Janeiro.

Selected publications

* * * with Denis Auroux: '' Lefschetz pencils, branched covers and symplectic invariants ''. In: Symplectic 4-manifolds and algebraic surfaces (Cetraro, 2003), Lect. Notes in Math. 1938, Springer, 2008, 1–53
Arxiv
* with Mohammed Abouzaid: "Homological mirror symmetry for the 4-torus", Duke Math. J., Vol. 152, 2010, pp. 373–440
Arxiv
* '' Floer cohomology and pencils of quadrics '', Inventiones Mathematicae, Vol. 189, 2012, pp. 149–250
Arxiv
* "A symplectic prolegomenon", Bulletin AMS, Vol. 52, 2015, pp. 415–464, * '' Quiver algebras as Fukaya categories '', Geom. Topol., Vol. 19, 2015, 2557–2617
Arxiv
* with Mohammed Abouzaid: '' Khovanov homology from Floer cohomology ''
Arxiv 2015
* with Mohammed Abouzaid: '' The symplectic arc algebra is formal '', Duke Math. J., Vol. 165, 2016, pp. 985–1060
Arxiv

References

External links

Homepage in Cambridge
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Ivan 20th-century British mathematicians 21st-century British mathematicians Alumni of the University of Oxford Differential geometers Fellows of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Whitehead Prize winners 1973 births Living people Topologists