معرفی
Bahar Acu is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Pitzer College (part of The Claremont Colleges) and an Avery Fellow at Claremont Graduate University. She holds a PhD from the University of Southern California (2017) under Ko Honda's supervision, with postdoctoral experience at institutions like ETH Zürich, the Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton), and Northwestern University. Her research focuses on symplectic and contact topology, particularly higher-dimensional structures and their interactions with mapping class groups and symplectic field theory.
- Current roles: Co-chair of CCMS Mathematics Colloquium, co-organizer of Claremont Topology Seminar, and editor of Springer's Research Directions in Symplectic Geometry and Contact Topology.
- Key awards: 2024 BLAIS Challenge Award, Avery Fellowship, and multiple teaching/research grants.
- Supervised students include Metehan Aksay (ETH Zürich) and Joël Beimler (ETH Zürich), focusing on topics like symplectic fillings and toric divisors.
- Active in promoting diversity through mentoring programs like Math Alliance and organizing conferences such as WiSCon II (2026).
Her research explores advanced topics including Weinstein handlebodies, planar contact manifolds, and symplectic Lefschetz fibrations. Recent work emphasizes generalizing planar contact structures to higher dimensions and studying symplectic mapping class group relations.
Academic service includes organizing conferences (e.g., AWM Research Symposium), mentoring over 5 students, and contributing to edited volumes. Teaching excellence awards reflect her dedication to education alongside research.
