Benson Stanley Farb (born October 25, 1967) is an American mathematician at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

. His research fields include

geometric group theory Geometric group theory is an area in mathematics devoted to the study of finitely generated groups via exploring the connections between algebraic properties of such group (mathematics), groups and topology, topological and geometry, geometric pro ...

and

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 th ...

Early life

A native of Norristown, Pennsylvania, Farb earned his bachelor's degree from

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

. In 1994, he obtained his doctorate from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

, under supervision of

William Thurston William Paul Thurston (October 30, 1946August 21, 2012) was an American mathematician. He was a pioneer in the field of low-dimensional topology and was awarded the Fields Medal in 1982 for his contributions to the study of 3-manifolds. Thursto ...

Career

Farb has advised over 40 students, including

Pallavi Dani Pallavi Dani is an Indian-American mathematician and an associate professor of mathematics at Louisiana State University (LSU) in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Her research area is geometric group theory; in particular, she studies quasi-isometry invar ...

Kathryn Mann Kathryn Mann is a mathematician who has won the Rudin Award, Birman Prize, Duszenko Award, and Sloan Fellowship for her research in geometric topology and geometric group theory. She is an assistant professor of mathematics at Cornell University. ...

, Dan Margalit, Karin Melnick and Andrew Putman. In 2012 Farb became a fellow of the

American Mathematical Society The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings, ...

. In 2014 he was an

invited speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians This is a list of International Congresses of Mathematicians Plenary and Invited Speakers. Being invited to talk at an International Congress of Mathematicians has been called "the equivalent, in this community, of an induction to a hall of fame." ...

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 of ...

, speaking in the section on Topology. He was elected to the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

in 2021.

Books

*Reviews of ''A Primer on Mapping Class Groups'' * * * *

Personal life

Farb married Amie Wilkinson, professor of mathematics at the

, on December 28, 1996. They are professors in the same department.

References

External links

* 1967 births Living people 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians Cornell University alumni Princeton University alumni University of Chicago faculty Fellows of the American Mathematical Society Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Topologists {{US-mathematician-stub