Ian Agol

Ian Agol

Ian Agol in Aarhus, August 2012
Born (1970-05-13) May 13, 1970
Hollywood, California
Nationality American
Fields Mathematics
Institutions University of California, Berkeley
Alma mater California Institute of Technology
University of California, San Diego
Doctoral advisor Michael Freedman
Doctoral students

Shawn Rafalski

Christopher K Atkinson
Known for Virtually Haken conjecture
Freedman–He–Wang conjecture
Wise's conjecture
Marden tameness conjecture
Notable awards Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics (2016)[1]
Veblen Prize in Geometry (2013)
Senior Berwick Prize (2012)
Clay Research Award (2009)

Ian Agol (born May 13, 1970) is an American mathematician who deals primarily with the topology of three-dimensional manifolds.[2]

Education and career

Agol obtained his Ph.D. in 1998 from the University of California, San Diego with Michael Freedman (Topology of Hyperbolic 3-Manifolds).[3] He is a professor at the University of California, Berkeley[4] and a former professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.[5]

Contributions

In 2004, Agol proved the Marden tameness conjecture, a conjecture of Albert Marden (de).[6] It states that a hyperbolic 3-manifold with finitely generated fundamental group is homeomorphic to the interior of a compact 3-manifold. The conjecture was also independently proven by Danny Calegari and David Gabai, and implies the Ahlfors measure conjecture.[6]

In 2012 he announced a proof of the virtually Haken conjecture. It states that every aspherical 3-manifold is finitely covered by a Haken manifold.

Awards and honors

Agol, Calegari, and Gabai received the 2009 Clay Research Award for their proof of the Marden tameness conjecture.[6]

In 2005, Agol was a Guggenheim Fellow.[7] In 2012 he became a fellow of the American Mathematical Society.[8]

In 2013, Agol was awarded the Oswald Veblen Prize in Geometry, along with Daniel Wise.[9]

In 2015, he was awarded the 2016 Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics, "for spectacular contributions to low dimensional topology and geometric group theory, including work on the solutions of the tameness, virtually Haken and virtual fibering conjectures."[10]

In 2016 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.[11]

Personal

His twin brother, Eric Agol,[12][13] is an astronomy professor at the University of Washington in Seattle.[14]

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/30/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.