Rhea Palak Bakshi

Rhea Palak Bakshi is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), mentored by Stephen Bigelow. Previously, she was a Junior Fellow at ETH Zürich under Anna Beliakova and earned her PhD in Mathematics from George Washington University (GWU) under Józef H. Przytycki in 2021. Her research focuses on quantum topology, low-dimensional topology, and knot theory, with a primary emphasis on skein modules/algebras of 3-manifolds, their connections to algebraic geometry and categorification, and recent explorations into skein lasagna modules for 4-manifolds. She also studies self-distributive structures like quandles and their applications in knot theory.

Her work includes co-authoring Lectures in Knot Theory: An Exploration of Contemporary Topics (Springer, 2024), a comprehensive text on quantum topology, and contributing chapters to the Encyclopedia of Knot Theory. She actively organizes the biannual Knots in Washington conference at GWU, fostering collaboration in knot theory research.

Her research spans topics such as Khovanov homology, TQFTs, the Volume and AJ conjectures, and Gram determinants. Notable contributions include studies on skein module structures, framing invariants, and connections between combinatorics and topology via plucking polynomials and Catalan connections. She maintains a personal website and collaborates widely in the mathematical community.