Asilata Bapat

Asilata Bapat is a Senior Lecturer and ARC DECRA Fellow at the Mathematical Sciences Institute of the Australian National University, where she also holds a Tuckwell Fellowship. Her research bridges representation theory, algebraic geometry, and topology, with particular focus on geometric structures arising from categorical frameworks.

Her educational background includes a PhD (2016) and Master's (2012) from the University of Chicago under Victor Ginzburg, and a Bachelor's in Mathematics with Computer Science (2010) from MIT. Prior to ANU, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Georgia with William Graham.

Dr. Bapat's research centers on the topology and geometry of algebraic varieties in representation-theoretic contexts. She investigates Bridgeland stability conditions, braid group actions on triangulated categories, perverse sheaves, quiver varieties, and Bernstein--Sato polynomials. Her recent work shows increasing engagement with computational topology through collaborations in persistence module theory.

Her publication record reveals a consistent trajectory from foundational representation theory toward geometric and topological applications, with significant recent contributions to stability conditions (2023-2024) and computational topology (2022). The 2024 papers on Burau representations and Wigglyhedra demonstrate expansion into geometric group theory and combinatorial geometry.

Award highlights include:

• Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA)
• Prestigious Tuckwell Fellowship for academic leadership

She actively supervises honors students (including Yangda Bei and Leonardo Maltoni in 2025) and coordinates the Simon Marais Mathematics Competition at ANU. Her current ARC-funded project 'Stability conditions: their topology and applications' (2024-2026) examines categorical braid group actions with collaborators Anthony Licata and Anand Deopurkar.

Through her cobracat GitHub repository, she maintains computational tools for categorical braid group actions, implementing algorithms for zigzag algebras and spherical twists. Her upcoming activities include presentations at major international venues: Centre de Recerca Matemàtica (Barcelona, Nov 2025), ICTS Bengaluru (Feb 2026), and University of Cambridge (Apr 2026).