Sucharit Sarkar (born 1983) is an Indian topologist and professor of mathematics at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

who works in low-dimensional topology.

Education and career

Sarkar attended secondary school at South Point High School in his hometown,

Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...

, India. In the

International Mathematical Olympiad The International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) is a mathematical olympiad for pre-university students, and is the oldest of the International Science Olympiads. It is widely regarded as the most prestigious mathematical competition in the wor ...

s in 2001 and 2002, he received gold and silver medals respectively. He completed his

Bachelor of Mathematics A Bachelor of Mathematics (abbreviated B.Math, BMath, or BMaths) is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for successfully completing a program of study in mathematics or related disciplines, such as applied mathematics, actuarial science, comp ...

degree from the

Indian Statistical Institute The Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) is a public research university headquartered in Kolkata, India with centers in New Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai and Tezpur. It was declared an Institute of National Importance by the Government of India und ...

, Bangalore from 2002 to 2005. Sarkar received 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 ...

from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

in 2009 under the guidance of Zoltán Szabó. He went on to postdoctoral fellowships at the

Mathematical Sciences Research Institute The Simons Laufer Mathematical Sciences Institute (SLMath), formerly the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI), is an independent nonprofit mathematical research institution on the University of California campus in Berkeley, Califor ...

and

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

, before becoming an assistant professor at

in 2012. In 2016 he moved to the

. Sarkar's research area is

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, ...

, with particular interests in

knot theory In topology, knot theory is the study of knot (mathematics), mathematical knots. While inspired by knots which appear in daily life, such as those in shoelaces and rope, a mathematical knot differs in that the ends are joined so it cannot be und ...

Heegaard Floer homology In mathematics, Floer homology is a tool for studying symplectic geometry and low-dimensional topology. Floer homology is an invariant that arises as an infinite-dimensional analogue of finite-dimensional Morse homology. Andreas Floer intro ...

, and

Khovanov homology In mathematics, Khovanov homology is an oriented link invariant that arises as the cohomology of a cochain complex. It may be regarded as a categorification of the Jones polynomial. It was developed in the late 1990s by Mikhail Khovanov. Overv ...

Awards and honors

* Sarkar 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 IMU Abacus Medal (known before ...

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

in 2018. * Sarkar was a

Clay Research Fellow The Clay Mathematics Institute (CMI) is a private, non-profit foundation dedicated to increasing and disseminating mathematical knowledge. Formerly based in Peterborough, New Hampshire, the corporate address is now in Denver, Colorado. CMI's sci ...

from 2009 until 2013.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sarkar, Sucharit 21st-century Indian mathematicians Indian topologists 1983 births Living people Princeton University alumni University of California, Los Angeles faculty Scientists from Kolkata International Mathematical Olympiad participants Indian Statistical Institute alumni Indian expatriate academics in the United States Princeton University faculty American people of Indian descent Scientists from West Bengal American people of Bengali descent Bengali people Indian emigrants to the United States