Ilya Kofman


Professor
Department of Mathematics
College of Staten Island,
The City University of New York (CUNY)
2800 Victory Boulevard
Staten Island, NY 10314

Office: 1S-209
Phone: 718-982-3615

ikofmanmath.csi.cuny.edu
Doctoral Faculty
Mathematics Program
The Graduate Center,
The City University of New York (CUNY)
365 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10016

GC Office: 4308

 
Ilya's photo


Teaching


Seminars


Research

The focus of my research is knot theory and geometric topology. Knot theory is a very active research area of mathematics today. Much of this research is closely connected with mathematical physics, and many results are of interest to biologists. For such a rich field of mathematical ideas, the "price of admission" is low for great research projects.

My current research is motivated by a deep open problem: how to bridge the chasm between quantum and geometric topology. Thurston established the importance of geometric invariants, especially hyperbolic volume, in low-dimensional topology. A revolution in knot theory was ushered in with the discovery of the Jones polynomial in 1984, which led to vast families of quantum invariants. Broadly, my aim is to establish relationships between quantum invariants of a knot, such as the Jones polynomial, and the geometry of the knot complement.

Papers

Edited proceedings

Conferences organized

Seminars