Akram Alishahi Associate Professor, Department of Mathematics Akram joined UGA Department of Mathematics in 2019. Before UGA she worked at Columbia University, Max Planck institute for Mathematics- Bonn and she was a graduate student at Sharif University. Her research interests are low dimensional topology, knot theory and contact and symplectic geometry. Website and Publications on Arxiv Jason Cantarella Professor, Department of Mathematics Jason joined UGA Department of Mathematics in 2000. Before UGA, he worked at the University of Massachusetts GANG lab, and was a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania. His research focuses on the shapes of random curves and polygons. He is particularly interested in questions like How likely is it that a random curve is knotted?, or What can we expect from a random diagram of a random space curve? His research is in the general area of geometric knot theory. He is also interested in the arts, especially in computer graphics and in sculpture. Website and Publications on Arxiv David Gay Professor, Department of Mathematics Dave joined UGA Department of Mathematics in 2011. Before UGA, he worked at University of Iowa, University of Cape Town, CRM/ISM, University of Arizona, Nankai University, and was a graduate student in UC Berkeley. He studies smooth and symplectic topology of 4-manifolds and the associated 3-dimensional issues. He is also interested in mathematical illustration and outreach, heavily motivated by low-dimensional geometry and topology. Website and Publications on Arxiv Peter Lambert-Cole Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics Peter Joined UGA Department of Mathematics in 2020. Before UGA, he worked at Max Planck Institute for Mathematics-Bonn, Georgia Tech, Indiana University and was a graduate student at Louisiana State University. His research interests are low-dimensional topology and contact and symplectic geometry. Publications on Arxiv Gordana MatiC Professor, Department of Mathematics Gordana joined UGA Department of Mathematics in 1991. Before joining UGA, she had postdoctoral positions at MIT, Institute for Advanced Study and Harvard, and was a graduate student at the University of Utah. Her research interests are 4- and 3-manifolds, contact topology, and Heegaard Floer homology. Publications on Arxiv Trent Schirmer Senior Lecturer, Department of Mathematics Trent joined UGA Department of Mathematics in 2016. Before UGA, he worked at Oklahoma State University and he was a graduate student in University of Iowa. He studyies 3- and 4-dimensional manifolds. In particular, he is interested in Heegaard splittings of 3-manifolds and trisections of 4-manifolds. Publications on Arxiv Michael Usher Professor and Head, Department of Mathematics Mike joined UGA Department of Mathematics in 2008. Before UGA, he worked at Princeton University and graduated from MIT. His research is in symplectic topology, in particular symplectic four-manifolds and Lefschetz fibrations, Hamiltonian dynamics, the geometry of symplectic diffeomorphisms and symplectic embeddings, and foundational issues related to filtered Floer and Morse homology. Website and Publications on Arxiv Postdocs Carolyn Engelhardt RTG Postdoctoral Associate Carolyn joined the UGA Mathematics Department in 2025 after completing her PhD at the University of Buffalo under the supervision of Cagatay Kutluhan. Her research interests include knot theory, 4-dimensional topology, and knotted surfaces. Website Eduardo FErnandez Fuertes Limited Term Assistant Professor Edu joined the UGA Department of Mathematics in 2022. He earned his PhD from ICMAT - Universidad Complutense de Madrid under the supervision of Francisco Presas. His research lies in the fields of Contact and Symplectic Topology, more precisely in the interplay between the flexible and rigid sides of the field, the topology of the contactomorphism group, Legendrian embedding spaces, etc. He also thinks about diffeomorphism groups and smooth embedding spaces, and how Contact/Symplectic Topology can help to understand these smooth gadgets and vice versa. Website Hyunki Min Limited Term Assistant Professor Hyunki arrived at UGA in 2025. He earned his Ph.D. from Georgia Tech under the supervision of John Etnyre and subsequently held postdoctoral appointments at MIT and UCLA. His research focuses on contact structures and knots in dimension three. Konstantinos Varvarezos RTG Postdoctoral Associate Konstantinos joined our department in 2025. He earned his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 2022 under the supervision of Zoltan Szabó and was subsequently a postdoc at UCLA. His research interests are in low-dimensional topology, knot theory, and contact topology. Current Graduate Students Student Started PhD at UGA Advisor Alex Tepper 2018 David Gay Gary Dunkerley 2021 Akram Alishahi Jack Green 2021 Michael Usher Jie Ji 2022 David Gay Isnayni Piga 2022 David Gay Cameron Thomas 2022 Michael Usher Connor Novak 2023 Akram Alishahi Former Graduate Students Student Graduated Advisor First Job after Graduating Nickolas Castro 2016 David Gay UC Davis, Postdoc Jason Joseph 2020 David Gay Rice University, Postdoc William Olsen 2020 David Gay U of Virginia, Postdoc Sarah Blackwell 2022 David Gay U of Virginia, Postdoc Swapnanil Banerjee 2023 David Gay Industry Devashi Gulati 2024 Peter Lambert-Cole Industry Daniel Hartman 2024 David Gay Max Planck Institute, Bonn, Postdoc Geunyoung Kim 2024 David Gay McMasters University, Posdtoc Terrin Warren 2024 David Gay California Polytechnic, Postdoc Han Lou 2025 Michael Usher BICMR (Beijing), Postdoc
