Ivan Smith is a British mathematician who deals with
symplectic manifolds 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 th ...
, and dynamics. He is a professor at the
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...
.
Education and career
Smith was born in 1973 to
Neil Smith, a professor of
linguistics
Linguistics is the science, 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 ...
at
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
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
, 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.
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. Whiteh ...
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 distinguis ...
. In 2018 he was an invited speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians 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