Michael Handel is an American

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

known for his work in Geometric group theory. He is a Professor in the Department of Mathematics at

Lehman College Lehman College is a public college in the Bronx borough of New York City. Founded in 1931 as the Bronx campus of Hunter College, the school became an independent college within CUNY in September 1967. The college is named after Herbert H. Lehma ...

of The City University of New York and a Professor of Mathematics at The Graduate Center of The City University of New York.

Career

Michael Handel graduated with a B.A. in mathematics from

Brandeis University , mottoeng = "Truth even unto its innermost parts" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = NECHE , president = Ronald D. Liebowitz , pro ...

in 1971. He received his Ph.D. from

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

in 1975 under the supervision of

Robion Kirby Robion Cromwell Kirby (born February 25, 1938) is a Professor of Mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley who specializes in low-dimensional topology. Together with Laurent C. Siebenmann he invented the Kirby–Siebenmann invariant ...

. From 1975 to 1978, he was an instructor at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

. He joined the faculty of

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...

as an Assistant Professor in 1978, and was promoted to Associate Professor in 1983. Handel was a visiting scholar at the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholar ...

from 1978 to 1979, and again from 1987 to 1988. In 1990, he joined the Mathematics Department at

. Handel is best known for developing the

Train track map In the mathematical subject of geometric group theory, a train track map is a continuous map ''f'' from a finite connected graph to itself which is a homotopy equivalence and which has particularly nice cancellation properties with respect to iter ...

method in Geometric group theory in collaboration with

Mladen Bestvina Mladen Bestvina (born 1959) is a Croatian-American mathematician working in the area of geometric group theory. He is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Utah. Biographical info Mladen Bestvina is a thr ...

in 1992.Mladen Bestvina, and Michael Handel
''Train tracks and automorphisms of free groups.''

Annals of Mathematics The ''Annals of Mathematics'' is a mathematical journal published every two months by Princeton University and the Institute for Advanced Study. History The journal was established as ''The Analyst'' in 1874 and with Joel E. Hendricks as the ...

(2), vol. 135 (1992), no. 1, pp. 1–51 Bestvina, Feighn and Handel later proved that the group Out(''F_n'') satisfies the

Tits alternative In mathematics, the Tits alternative, named for Jacques Tits, is an important theorem about the structure of finitely generated linear groups. Statement The theorem, proven by Tits, is stated as follows. Consequences A linear group is not am ...

, settling a long-standing open problem.Mladen Bestvina, Mark Feighn, and Michael Handel
''The Tits alternative for Out(F_n). I. Dynamics of exponentially-growing automorphisms.''

(2), vol. 151 (2000), no. 2, pp. 517–623Mladen Bestvina, Mark Feighn, and Michael Handel.
''The Tits alternative for Out(F_n). II. A Kolchin type theorem.''

(2), vol. 161 (2005), no. 1, pp. 1–59

Awards and honors

*In 1984, Handel won a Sloan Research Fellowship. *In 2014, he 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, ...

Selected publications

*Handel, Michael. "One Dimensional Minimal Sets and the Seifert Conjecture ". ''

(2)'' 111 (1980), no. 1, 35-66
DOI:10.2307/1971216
*Feighn, Mark; Handel, Michael. "Mapping tori of free group automorphisms are coherent". ''

(2)'' 149 (1999), no. 3, 1061–1077
MR 1709311
*Bestvina, Mladen; Feighn, Mark; Handel, Michael
''The Tits alternative for Out(F_n). I. Dynamics of exponentially-growing automorphisms.''

(2), vol. 151 (2000), no. 2, pp. 517–623 *Bestvina, Mladen; Feighn, Mark; Handel, Michael.
''The Tits alternative for Out(F_n). II. A Kolchin type theorem.''

(2), vol. 161 (2005), no. 1, pp. 1–5
MR 2150382
*Handel, Michael; Mosher, Lee. "The free splitting complex of a free group, I: hyperbolicity". ''

Geometry & Topology ''Geometry & Topology'' is a peer-refereed, international mathematics research journal devoted to geometry and topology, and their applications. It is currently based at the University of Warwick, United Kingdom, and published by Mathematical Sci ...

'' 17 (2013), no. 3, 1581–1672
MR 3073931

References

External links

Department of Mathematics - Faculty - Lehman College
{{DEFAULTSORT:Handel, Michael University of California, Berkeley alumni Living people 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians Fellows of the American Mathematical Society Institute for Advanced Study visiting scholars Lehman College faculty Graduate Center, CUNY faculty City University of New York faculty Mathematicians from New York (state) Year of birth missing (living people)

Career

Awards and honors

Selected publications

See also

References

External links