معرفی
R. Inanc Baykur is a Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He has been a faculty member since 2013, advancing from Assistant Professor (2013–2017) to Associate Professor (2017–2022), and to Full Professor in 2022. His research lies at the intersection of low-dimensional topology and geometry, with a primary focus on smooth 4-manifolds, symplectic and contact structures, and Lefschetz fibrations.
Baykur earned his Ph.D. in Mathematics from Michigan State University in 2007 under the supervision of Ronald Fintushel. He held postdoctoral and research positions at Columbia University, Brandeis University, and the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in Bonn before joining UMass Amherst. He has also been affiliated with prestigious institutions such as the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI), the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), and the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques (IHÉS).
His research interests include:
- Smooth and symplectic 4-manifolds
- Exotic smooth structures
- Mapping class groups and their factorizations
- Broken and simplified Lefschetz fibrations
- Trisections of 4-manifolds
- Contact and Stein fillings
Baykur's recent publications reveal a strong trend in constructing explicit models of Lefschetz fibrations, understanding the geography of symplectic 4-manifolds, and exploring the interplay between algebraic factorizations and smooth topology. His work often combines deep theoretical insights with combinatorial techniques in mapping class groups to produce new families of exotic manifolds and to resolve long-standing conjectures.
His scientific awards and grants include multiple National Science Foundation grants (e.g., DMS-2005327, DMS-1510395), Simons Foundation Collaboration Grants, and the UMass Flex Teaching Award, which he has received eleven times consecutively (2014–2024). He has also received research fellowships from IHÉS, Max Planck Institute, and IAS.
Baykur is an active mentor and collaborator. He has advised several Ph.D. students, including Andrew Havens and Richard Buckman, and mentored postdoctoral researchers such as Nathan Sunukjian and Jonathan Simone. He has co-organized numerous international conferences and workshops, including events at AIM, ICERM, and in Dubrovnik, focusing on 4-manifolds, symplectic geometry, and low-dimensional topology.
He is deeply involved in the mathematical community as a referee for top journals such as Annals of Mathematics, Inventiones Mathematicae, and Journal of Differential Geometry, and as a reviewer for the National Science Foundation.
