Mikhail Khovanov (russian: Михаил Гелиевич Хованов; born 1972) is a

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

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professor of mathematics at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

who works on

representation theory Representation theory is a branch of mathematics that studies abstract algebraic structures by ''representing'' their elements as linear transformations of vector spaces, and studies modules over these abstract algebraic structures. In essen ...

, knot theory, and

algebraic topology Algebraic topology is a branch of mathematics that uses tools from abstract algebra to study topological spaces. The basic goal is to find algebraic invariants that classify topological spaces up to homeomorphism, though usually most classify ...

. He is known for introducing Khovanov homology for links, which was one of the first examples of categorification.

Education and career

Khovanov graduated from

Moscow State School 57 Moscow State School 57 (russian: Пятьдесят седьмая школа) is a public school located in the Khamovniki District of Moscow, Russia. The school was founded in 1877 and is best known for its specialized secondary program in math ...

mathematical class in 1988. He earned a PhD in mathematics from

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

in 1997, where he studied under Igor Frenkel. Khovanov was a faculty member at

UC Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institut ...

before moving to Columbia University."Mathematics", UC Davis Wiki
4 April 2007.

"Mikhail Khovanov was in the department when he developed the famous homology theory that bears his name."

He is a half-brother of

Tanya Khovanova Tanya Khovanova ( Russian: Татьяна Гелиевна Хованова, also spelled Tatyana Hovanova; born 25 January 1959) is a Soviet-American mathematician who became the second female gold medalist at the International Mathematical Olym ...

References

External links

Khovanov's faculty page
at Columbia.
List of Khovanov's publications
1972 births Living people 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians Topologists Columbia University faculty Yale University alumni {{US-mathematician-stub