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Celebratio Mathematica

Abigail A. Thompson

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Biographical Sketch

Abigail A. Thompson

Education

B.A. Welles­ley Col­lege, Math­em­at­ics/Mu­sic, 1979

Ph.D. Rut­gers Uni­versity, Math­em­at­ics, 1986

Appointments

2017–2020 Chair, De­part­ment of Math­em­at­ics, UC Dav­is
1997–present Pro­fess­or, UC Dav­is
2015–2016 Mem­ber, In­sti­tute for Ad­vanced Study, Prin­ceton
2002–2017 Dir­ect­or, Cos­mos Pro­gram, UC Dav­is
2001–2002 Co-Dir­ect­or, Cos­mos Pro­gram, UC Dav­is
2000–2001 Mem­ber, In­sti­tute for Ad­vanced Study, Prin­ceton
1992–1997 As­so­ci­ate Pro­fess­or, UC Dav­is
1988–1992 As­sist­ant Pro­fess­or, UC Dav­is
1990–1991 Mem­ber, In­sti­tute for Ad­vanced Study, Prin­ceton
1987–1988 UC Pres­id­ent’s Fel­low, UC Berke­ley
1986–1987 Lady Dav­is Fel­low, Hebrew Uni­versity of Jer­u­s­alem

Awards and Fellowships

2022 Christensen Fel­low, St. Cath­er­ine’s Col­lege, Ox­ford
2013 Fel­low, Amer­ic­an Math­em­at­ic­al So­ci­ety
2010 UC Dav­is Dis­tin­guished Teach­ing Award for Gradu­ate Teach­ing
2003 Amer­ic­an Math­em­at­ic­al So­ci­ety Ruth Lyttle Sat­ter Prize
1994–1995 NSF Ca­reer Ad­vance­ment Award
1991–1993 Al­fred P. Sloan Found­a­tion Re­search Fel­low
1988–1991 NSF Postdoc­tor­al Fel­low

Professional Service (selection)

2021–present Sec­ret­ary, As­so­ci­ation for Math­em­at­ic­al Re­search
2019–2022 Vice-Pres­id­ent, Amer­ic­an Math­em­at­ic­al So­ci­ety
2018 Mem­ber, Ex­tern­al Re­view Com­mit­tee, UC Berke­ley Math­em­at­ics
2015–2019 Mem­ber, In­ter­na­tion­al Ad­vis­ory Com­mit­tee, RET
(Span­ish To­po­logy Net­work)
2015–2019 Mem­ber, Math­em­at­ic­al Sci­ences Pub­lish­ers, Board of Dir­ect­ors
2015–2018 Mem­ber and Chair (2017-2018), Amer­ic­an Math­em­at­ic­al So­ci­ety,
Fel­lows Pro­gram Se­lec­tion Com­mit­tee
2015 Co-or­gan­izer, Amer­ic­an Math­em­at­ic­al So­ci­ety West­ern Sec­tion,
Spe­cial ses­sion on low-di­men­sion­al to­po­logy and knot the­ory
2011–2014 Mem­ber and Chair (2012–2014), Amer­ic­an Math­em­at­ic­al So­ci­ety,
Com­mit­tee on the Pro­fes­sion
2011–2014 Mem­ber and Chair (2013), As­so­ci­ation for Wo­men in Math­em­at­ics,
No­eth­er Lec­ture Com­mit­tee
2009 Co-or­gan­izer, In­ter­na­tion­al Con­fer­ence in Low-Di­men­sion­al
To­po­logy in hon­or of M. Schar­le­mann’s 60th Birth­day, Dav­is, CA
2008 Co-or­gan­izer, Amer­ic­an Math­em­at­ic­al So­ci­ety,
Math­em­at­ic­al Re­search Com­munit­ies Work­shop
in 3-man­i­folds and Teich­muller The­ory, Snow­bird, Utah
2006–2009 Mem­ber, As­so­ci­ation for Wo­men in Math­em­at­ics
2005–2008 Mem­ber and Chair (2007–2008), Amer­ic­an Math­em­at­ic­al So­ci­ety
Ed­it­or­i­al Boards Com­mit­tee, (elec­ted po­s­i­tion)
2005 Co-or­gan­izer, Work­shop in Com­pu­ta­tion­al Geo­metry and To­po­logy
Found­a­tions of Com­pu­ta­tion­al Math­em­at­ics, Sant­and­er, Spain
2002–2004 Mem­ber and Chair (2003–2004), Amer­ic­an Math­em­at­ic­al So­ci­ety,
Centen­ni­al Prize Com­mit­tee
2003 Co-or­gan­izer, Ban­ff In­ter­na­tion­al Re­search Sta­tion,
Work­shop in Low-Di­men­sion­al To­po­logy

University Service (selection)

2017–2020 Chair, De­part­ment of Math­em­at­ics
2017–2018 Mem­ber, UC Dav­is Prize Se­lec­tion Com­mit­tee
2017–2019 Mem­ber, Col­lege of L&S Teach­ing Awards Se­lec­tion Com­mit­tee
2018–present Mem­ber, Math and Sci­ence Teach­ing (MAST) Ad­vis­ory Com­mit­tee
2017–18 Mem­ber, Col­lege of L&S Teach­ing Awards Plan­ning Com­mit­tee
2016–2017 Mem­ber, Con­fid­en­tial Re­view Com­mit­tee
2011–2014 Mem­ber and Sec­ret­ary (2013–15) Aca­dem­ic Sen­ate,
Ex­ec­ut­ive Coun­cil
2011–2012 Mem­ber, Math­em­at­ic­al and Phys­ic­al Sci­ences,
Re­struc­tur­ing Com­mit­tee
2009–2012 Mem­ber and Chair (2011–12) Col­lege of Let­ters and Sci­ence,
Ex­ec­ut­ive Com­mit­tee

Outreach and Education Activities

  • Dir­ect­or, COS­MOS pro­gram at UC Dav­is, 2001–2017. This is a 4-week res­id­en­tial cross-dis­cip­lin­ary math­em­at­ics and sci­ence pro­gram for 200 high-achiev­ing high school stu­dents, held every sum­mer on the UC Dav­is cam­pus.
  • Fea­tured in: Cali­for­nia State Lib­rary “Wo­men in STEM” 2013 cal­en­dar.
  • Fea­tured in: Amer­ic­an Math­em­at­ic­al So­ci­ety “Wo­men Do­ing Math­em­at­ics” poster, 2010.
  • Played cello in string quar­tets for two UCD Med­ic­al School events an­nu­ally, “Cel­eb­ra­tion of Life” at the MIND In­sti­tute (Septem­ber) and gradu­ation re­cep­tion (May), 2017–19.

Special Event

June, 2018, UC Berke­ley, “Thom­schar­by­Fest”, five-day con­fer­ence in hon­or of the 60th, 70th and 80th birth­days of A. Thompson, M. Schar­le­mann and R. Kirby, re­spect­ively.

Publications

For a com­plete list of pub­lic­a­tions see the Works page in this volume.

Invited Talks

4/2013 UC Dav­is (Key­note Ad­dress)
Math­em­at­ics and Sci­ence Teach­ing Pro­gram,
“Knots, Links and Sur­faces”
 
5/2013 Port­land State Uni­versity (In­vited Ad­dress)
Cas­cade To­po­logy Sem­in­ar
“Gen­er­al­ized width for knots in the 3-sphere”
 
1/2014 Amer­ic­an Math­em­at­ic­al So­ci­ety (Mod­er­at­or)
Com­mit­tee on the Pro­fes­sion Pan­el Dis­cus­sion
“On­line Courses, Be­ne­fits and Pit­falls”
 
3/2014 Ban­ff In­ter­na­tion­al Re­search Cen­ter (co-Mod­er­at­or)
Prob­lem Ses­sion in 3- and 4-di­men­sion­al to­po­logy
 
8/2014 Uni­versity of Iowa (In­vited Ad­dress)
Thin Man­i­folds Con­fer­ence
“Find­ing geodesics on a tri­an­gu­lated 2-sphere”
 
10/2014 Tech­nion, Haifa, Is­rael
To­po­logy Sem­in­ar
“Find­ing geodesics on a tri­an­gu­lated 2-sphere”
 
11/2014 Hebrew Uni­versity, Jer­u­s­alem, Is­rael
To­po­logy Sem­in­ar
“Thin po­s­i­tion and tri­an­gu­la­tions of the 2-sphere”
 
1/2015 UC Dav­is
Math­em­at­ics Club
“3-di­men­sion­al man­i­folds”
 
2/2015 Columbia Uni­versity
To­po­logy Sem­in­ar
“Hee­gaard split­tings and sta­bil­iz­a­tions”
 
8/2015 Trin­ity Col­lege, Dub­lin (In­vited Ad­dress)
Wil­li­am Row­an Hamilton Geo­metry and To­po­logy Con­fer­ence
“In­com­press­ible sur­faces and dis­tance 2 man­i­folds”
 
10/2015 Rut­gers Uni­versity Col­loqui­um
“Knots and thin po­s­i­tion”
 
11/2015 In­sti­tute for Ad­vanced Study
Mem­bers’ Sem­in­ar
“Op­tim­al knots”
 
11/2015 Temple Uni­versity Col­loqui­um
“In search of op­tim­al knots”
 
11/2015 Bryn Mawr Col­lege
PATCH sem­in­ar
“Sur­gery on fibered knots”
 
12/2016 In­sti­tute for Ad­vanced Study
Friends of the In­sti­tute for Ad­vanced Study
“Ex­plor­ing three di­men­sions”
 
1/2016 In­sti­tute for Ad­vanced Study
Math Con­ver­sa­tions
“Hee­gaard split­tings and the sta­bil­iz­a­tion prob­lem for 3-man­i­folds”
 
1/2016 Uni­versity of Neb­raska, Plen­ary speak­er
Neb­raska Con­fer­ence for Un­der­gradu­ate Wo­men in Math­em­at­ics
“Un­der­stand­ing 3-di­men­sion­al spaces”
 
2/2016 In­sti­tute for Ad­vanced Study
After-Hours Con­ver­sa­tions
“Math in the so­cial sci­ences: A story”
 
3/2016 Uni­versity of Iowa, Plen­ary Speak­er
Ad­vances in quantum and low-di­men­sion­al to­po­logy con­fer­ence
“Sur­gery on com­plic­ated fibered knots”
 
4/2016 CUNY Gradu­ate Cen­ter
To­po­logy Sem­in­ar
“In­com­press­ible sur­faces and Hee­gaard split­tings of 3-man­i­folds”
 
2/2017 Yuba Col­lege
Sac­ra­mento Val­ley Com­munity Col­lege Math­em­at­ics Con­fer­ence
“Prob­lems in com­bin­at­or­ics and knot the­ory”
 
3/2017 Amer­ic­an In­sti­tute of Math­em­at­ics
Work­shop: Tri­sec­tions and low-di­men­sion­al to­po­logy
“An in­vari­ant of 4-man­i­folds”
 
4/2017 Uni­versity of Buf­falo
AWM Lec­ture series
“An in­vari­ant of tri­sec­ted 4-man­i­folds”
 
4/2018 AMS Bo­ston meet­ing
Spe­cial Ses­sion
“Link sur­gery and tri­sec­tions”
 
4/2018 Ok­lahoma State Uni­versity
Red­bud To­po­logy Sem­in­ar
“Link sur­gery and tri­sec­tions”
 
5/2018 UC Santa Bar­bara, Hypa­tia Sem­in­ar
“Graphs and sur­faces”
 
5/2018 UC Santa Bar­bara, Hypa­tia Sem­in­ar
“Tri­sec­tions and sur­gery on links”
 
5/2018 Ok­inawa In­sti­tute of Tech­no­logy
Work­shop: Geo­metry and to­po­logy of 3-man­i­folds
“Tri­sec­tions and link sur­ger­ies”
 
1/2019 MAT­RIX In­sti­tute, Creswick, Aus­tralia
“Tri­sec­tions and sur­gery ques­tions on links in 3-man­i­folds”
 
3/2022 Uni­versity of Ox­ford
To­po­logy Sem­in­ar
“Tri­sec­ted 4-man­i­folds and link sur­gery”
 
5/2022 ISTA, Aus­tria, To­po­logy Sem­in­ar
“Con­struct­ing tri­sec­tions of 4-man­i­folds”
 
6/2022 Le Crois­ic, France
Sur­faces in 4-man­i­folds con­fer­ence
“Kirby dia­grams and tri­sec­tions”