Geometry Festival

Previous Geometry Festival speakers

1985 at Penn

• Marcel Berger
• Pat Eberlein
• Jost Eschenburg
• Friedrich Hirzebruch
• Blaine Lawson
• Leon Simon
• Scott Wolpert
• Deane Yang

  1986 at Maryland

• Uwe Abresch, Explicit constant mean curvature tori
• Zhi-yong Gao, The existence of negatively Ricci curved metrics
• David Hoffman, New results in the global theory of minimal surfaces
• Jack Lee, Conformal geometry and the Yamabe problem
• Ngaiming Mok, Compact Kähler manifolds of non-negative curvature
• John Morgan, Self dual connections and the topology of 4-manifolds
• Chuu-Lian Terng, Submanifolds with flat normal bundle

  1987 at Penn

• Robert Bryant, The construction of metrics with exceptional holonomy
• Francis Bonahon, Hyperbolic 3-manifolds with arbitrarily short geodesics
• Keith Burns, Geodesic flows on the 2-sphere
• Andreas Floer, Instantons and Casson's invariant
• Hermann Karcher, Embedded minimal surfaces in the 3-sphere
• Jürgen Moser, Minimal foliations of tori
• Edward Witten. Applications of quantum field theory to topology

  1988 at North Carolina

• Detlef Gromoll, On complete spaces of non-negative Ricci curvature
• Nicolas Kapouleas, Constant mean curvature surfaces in E3
• Robert Osserman, Gauss map of complete minimal surfaces
• Pierre Pansu, Lp-cohomology of negatively curved manifolds
• Peter Petersen, Bounding homotopy types by geometry
• Gang Tian, Kähler-Einstein metrics on quasiprojective manifolds
• DaGang Yang, Some new examples of manifolds of positive Ricci curvature
• Wolfgang Ziller, Recent results on Einstein metrics

  1989 at Stony Brook

• Eugenio Calabi, Extremal singular metrics on surfaces
• Harold Donnelly, Nodal sets of eigenfunctions on Riemannian manifolds
• Yakov Eliashberg, Symplectic geometric methods in several complex variables
• F. Thomas Farrell, A topological analogue of Mostow's rigidity theorem
• Lesley Sibner, Solutions to Yang-Mills equations which are not self-dual
• Carlos Simpson, Moduli spaces of representations of fundamental groups

  1990 at Maryland

• Michael T. Anderson, Behavior of metrics under Ricci curvature bounds
• Kevin Corlette, Harmonic maps and geometric superrigidity
• Kenji Fukaya, Fundamental groups of almost non-negatively curved manifolds
• Mikhail Gromov, Recent progress in symplectic geometry
• Werner Müller, On spectral theory for locally symmetric manifolds with finite volume
• Rick Schoen, Least area problems for Lagrangian submanifolds
• Gudlaugur Thorbergsson, Isoparametric submanifolds and their Tits buildings
• Shing-Tung Yau, Some theorems in Kähler geometry

  1991 at Duke

• Jeff Cheeger, Transgressed Euler classes of SL-bundles and adiabatic limits of eta-invariants
• Chris Croke, Volumes of balls in manifolds without conjugate points and rigidity of geodesic flows
• Carolyn Gordon, When you can't hear the shape of a manifold
• Wu-Yi Hsiang, Sphere packing and spherical geometry: The Kepler conjecture and beyond
• Alan Nadel, On the geometry of Fano varieties
• Grigori Perelman, Alexandrov's spaces with curvature bounded from below
• Stephan Stolz, On the space of positive curvature metrics modulo diffeomorphisms

  1992 at Courant

• Jonathan Block, Aperiodic tilings, positive scalar curvature and other homological phenomena
• John Franks, Infinitely many closed geodesics on the 2-sphere
• Karsten Grove, The inevitable presence of singular spaces in Riemannian geometry
• Lisa Jeffrey, Volumes of moduli spaces of flat connections on Riemannian surfaces
• Jun Li, Anti-self-dual connections on SU bundles over algebraic surfaces
• Dusa McDuff, Symplectic 4-manifolds
• Clifford Taubes, Anti-self dual conformal structures in 4 dimensions

  1993 at Penn

• Shiing-Shen Chern, Finsler geometry
• Richard S. Hamilton, An isoperimetric estimate for the curve-shrinking flow
• Vaughan Jones, Loop groups and operator algebras
• Claude LeBrun, Compact Kähler manifolds of constant scalar curvature
• Louis Nirenberg, The maximum principle and related things
• Xiaochun Rong, Collapsing in low dimensions and rationality of geometric invariants
• Isadore Singer, Geometry and quantum field theory

  1995 at Stony Brook

• Dimitri Burago, Asymptotic geometry of Z^n-periodic metrics
• Tobias Colding, Ricci curvature and convergence
• Dominic Joyce, Compact Riemannian manifolds with exceptional holonomy groups
• Yael Karshon, Hamiltonian torus actions
• David Morrison, Analogues of Seiberg-Witten invariants for counting curves on Calabi-Yau manifolds
• Tomasz Mrowka, The Seiberg-Witten equations and 4-manifold topology
• Yongbin Ruan, Higher genus pseudo-holomorphic curves
• Edward Witten, Monopoles and four-manifolds

  1996 at Maryland

• John C. Baez, Quantum gravity and BF theory in 4 dimensions
• Jean-Luc Brylinski, Gauge groups and reciprocity laws on algebraic varieties
• Bruce Kleiner, Spaces of nonpositive curvature
• Grigory Margulis, Quantitative Oppenheim Conjecture
• Sergei P. Novikov, Laplace and Darboux transformations
• Richard Schwartz, The Devil's Pentagram
• Guofang Wei, Volume comparison with integral curvature bounds
• Shmuel Weinberger, Equivariant rigidity: For and against

  1997 at Duke

• Jeanne Nielsen Clelland, Geometry of Conservation Laws for Parabolic PDE's
• Anatole Katok, Rigidity and invariant geometric structures for differentiable group actions
• François Labourie, Monge-Ampere problems, holomorphic curves and laminations
• Gang Liu, Floer Homology and the Arnold Conjecture
• William Minicozzi II, Harmonic functions on manifolds
• Lorenz Schwachhöfer, The classification of irreducible holonomies of torsion free connections
• Matthias Schwarz, Symplectic fixed points and quantum cohomology
• Stephen Semmes, Geometry with little smoothness

  1998 at Stony Brook

• Scott Axelrod, Generalized Chern-Simons invariants as a generalized Lagrangian field theory
• Jean-Michel Bismut, Chern-Simons classes, Bott Chern classes and analytic torsion
• Spencer Bloch, Algebro-geometric Chern-Simons classes
• Robert Bryant, Recent progress on the holonomy classification problem
• Robert Bryant, Recent results and open problems in Finsler geometry
• Jeff Cheeger and Blaine Lawson, The mathematical work of James Simons
• Jeff Cheeger, Ricci Curvature
• Jürg Fröhlich, Physics and the Chern-Simons form
• Mikhail Gromov, Dynamics on function spaces
• Maxim Kontsevich, On regulators, critical values and q-factorials
• Blaine Lawson, Connections and singularities of maps
• Robert MacPherson, Spaces with torus actions
• John Milnor, Remarks on geometry and dynamics
• I.M. Singer, TBA
• Dennis Sullivan A combinatorial model for non-linearity
• Clifford Taubes, Seiberg-Witten invariants, harmonic forms, and their pseudo-holomorphic curves
• Gang Tian, Yang-Mills connections and calibration
• C.-N. Yang, Vector potentials and connections
• Shing-Tung Yau, Mirror symmetry and rational curves

  1999 at Penn

• Peter Sarnak, Some spectral problems on negatively curved manifolds
• Zheng-xu He, The gradient flow for the Möbius energy of knots
• Curtis McMullen, The moduli space of Riemann surfaces is Kähler-hyperbolic
• Paul Biran, Lagrange skeletons and symplectic rigidity
• Helmut Hofer, Holomorphic curves and contact geometry
• Werner Ballmann, On negative curvature and the essential spectrum of geometric operators
• Shlomo Sternberg, Multiplets of representations and Kostant's Dirac operator''

  2000 at Maryland

• Samuel Ferguson, The Kepler Conjecture
• Robert Meyerhoff, Rigorous computer-aided proofs in the theory of hyperbolic 3-manifolds
• Herman Gluck, Geometry, topology and plasma physics
• Burkhard Wilking, New examples of manifolds with positive sectional curvature almost everywhere
• John Roe, Amenability and assembly maps
• Eleny Ionel, Gromov invariants of symplectic sums
• Mikhail Gromov, Spaces of holomorphic maps

  2001 at Northeastern

• Robert Bryant, Rigidity and quasirigidity of extremal cycles in Hermitian symmetric spaces
• Tobias Colding, Embedded minimal surfaces in 3-manifolds
• Boris Dubrovin, Normal forms of integrable PDE's
• John Lott, Heat equation methods in noncommutative geometry
• Dusa McDuff, Seminorms on the Hamiltonian group and the nonsqueezing theorem
• Rick Schoen, Variational approaches to the construction minimal lagrangian submanifolds
• Shing-Tung Yau, Mirror symmetry

  2002 at Courant

• Denis Auroux, Singular plane curves and topological invariants of symplectic manifolds
• Hugh Bray, On the mass of higher dimensional black holes
• Alice Chang, Conformally invariant operators and the Gauss-Bonnet integrand
• Xiuxiong Chen, The space of Kähler metrics
• George Daskalopoulos, On the Yang-Mills flow in higher dimensions
• Alex Eskin, Billiards and lattices
• Juha Heinonen, On the existence of quasiregular mappings

  2003 at Duke

• Bennett Chow, Harnack estimates of Li-Yau-Hamilton type for the Ricci flow
• Anda Degeratu, Geometrical McKay Correspondence
• Ron Donagi, Griffiths' intermediate Jacobians, integrable systems, and string theory
• John Etnyre, Legendrian knots in high dimensions
• Joe Harris, Are Cubics Rational?
• Claude LeBrun, Zoll Manifolds, Complex Surfaces, and Holomorphic Disks
• John Morgan, Variations of Hodge structure for 1-parameter families of Calabi-Yau three-folds
• Madhav Nori, A modified Hodge conjecture
• Justin Sawon, Twisted Fourier-Mukai transforms for holomorphic symplectic manifolds
• Wilfried Schmid, Automorphic distributions, L-functions, and functional equations
• Jeff Viaclovsky, Fully nonlinear equations and conformal geometry
• Claire Voisin, K-correspondences and intrinsic pseudovolume forms

  2004 at Courant

• Jean-Michel Bismut, The Hypoelliptic Laplacian on the Cotangent Bundle
• Yasha Eliashberg, Positive Loops of Contact Transformations
• Blaine Lawson, Projective Hulls and the Projective Gelfand Transformation
• Dusa McDuff, Applications of J-holomorphic Curves
• Xiaochun Rong, Local splitting structures on nonpositively curved manifolds
• Dennis Sullivan, Algebraic topology in string backgrounds
• Gang Tian, Extremal Metrics and Holomorphic Discs
• Edward Witten, Gauge Theory Scattering From Curves In CP3

  2005 at Stony Brook

• Nancy Hingston, Periodic solutions of Hamilton's equations on tori
• Sergiu Klainerman, Null hypersurfaces and curvature estimates in general relativity
• Bruce Kleiner, Singular structure of mean curvature flow
• Frank Pacard, Blowing up Kähler manifolds with constant scalar curvature
• Rahul Pandharipande, A topological view of Gromov-Witten theory
• Igor Rodniansky, Non-linear waves and Einstein geometry
• Yum-Tong Siu, Methods of singular metrics in algebraic geometry
• Katrin Wehrheim, Floer theories in symplectic topology and gauge theory

  2006 at Penn

• Jeff Cheeger, Differentiation, bi-Lipschitz nonembedding and embedding
• Charles Fefferman, Fitting a smooth function to data
• Helmut Hofer, On the analytic and geometric foundations of symplectic field theory
• Ko Honda, Reeb vector fields and open book decompositions
• William H. Meeks, The Dynamics Theorem for embedded minimal surfaces
• Yair Minsky, Asymptotic geometry of the mapping class group
• Frank Morgan, Manifolds with Density
• Zoltan Szabo, Link Floer homology and the Thurston norm

  2007 at Maryland

• Dan Freed, Secondary differential-geometric invariants, generalized cohomology, and QCD
• Xiaobo Lu, Mean curvature flow for isoparametric submanifolds
• Vitali Kapovitch, Some open problems in comparison geometry
• Maryam Mirzakhani, Lattice point asymptotics and conformal densities on Teichmüller space
• Charles Epstein, Stein fillings and index theorems
• Guoliang Yu, Group actions and K-theory
• Simon Brendle, Blow-up phenomena for the Yamabe PDE in high dimensions

  2008 at Duke

• Michael Anderson, Conformally compact Einstein metrics with prescribed conformal infinity
• Robert Bryant,Riemannian Submersions as PDE
• Greg Galloway, Stability of marginally trapped surfaces with applications to black holes
• Marcus Khuri, The Yamabe Problem Revisited
• John Lott, Optimal transport in Riemannian geometry and Ricci flow
• William Minicozzi, The rate of change of width under flows
• Duong Phong, Stability and constant scalar curvature
• Jeff Viaclovsky, Orthogonal Complex Structures

  2009 at Stony Brook

• Jeff Cheeger, Quantitative Behavior of Maps from the Heisenberg Group to L1
• Marcos Dajczer, Conformal Killing graphs with prescribed mean curvature
• Karsten Grove, Positive curvature: the quest for examples
• Wolfgang Meyer, The Contributions of Detlef Gromoll to Riemannian Geometry
• Gabriel Paternain, Transparent Connections over Negatively Curved Surfaces
• Christina Sormani, The Intrinsic Flat Distance between Riemannian Manifolds
• Guofang Wei, Smooth Metric Measure Spaces

  2010 at Courant

• Tim Austin : Rational group ring elements with kernels having irrational von Neumann dimension
• Xiuxiong Chen : The space of Kaehler metrics
• Tobias Colding : Sharp Hölder continuity of tangent cones for spaces with a lower Ricci curvature bound and applications
• Marianna Csörnyei : Tangents of null sets
• Larry Guth : Contraction of surface areas vs. topology of mappings
• Jeremy Kahn : Essential immersed surfaces in closed hyperbolic three-manifolds
• Gang Tian : Kähler–Ricci flow through finite-time singularities

  2011 at Penn

• Hubert Bray : On dark matter, spiral galaxies, and the axioms of general relativity
• Tobias Colding : Generic mean curvature flow
• Claude LeBrun : On Hermitian Einstein 4-manifolds
• Natasa Sesum : Yamabe Solitons
• Pete Storm : Infinitesimal rigidity of hyperbolic manifolds with totally geodesic boundary
• Brian Weber : Regularity and convergence of extremal Kaehler metrics
• Shing-Tung Yau : An appreciation of Eugenio Calabi and his work
• Shing-Tung Yau : Quasi-local mass in general relativity

  2012 at Duke

• John Etnyre : Surgery and tight contact structures
• Valentino Tosatti : The evolution of a Hermitian metric by its Chern-Ricci curvature
• Carla Cederbaum : From Newton to Einstein: A guided tour through space and time
• Jan Metzger : On isoperimetric surfaces in asymptotically flat manifolds
• Fernando Codá Marques : Min-max theory and the Willmore conjecture
• Yanir Rubinstein : Einstein metrics on Kähler manifolds
• Simon Brendle : Rotational symmetry of self-similar solutions to the Ricci flow
• Mu-Tao Wang : A variational problem for isometric embeddings and its applications in general relativity
• Gordana Matic : Contact invariant in Sutured Floer Homology and fillability

  2013 at Maryland

• Bo Berndtsson : Variations of Bergman kernels and symmetrization of plurisubharmonic functions
• Simon Donaldson : Kähler-Einstein metrics, extremal metrics and stability
• Hans-Joachim Hein : Singularities of Kähler-Einstein metrics and complete Calabi-Yau manifolds
• Peter Kronheimer : Instanton homology for knots and webs
• Andrea Malchiodi : Uniformization of surfaces with conical singularities
• Aaron Naber : Characterizations of bounded Ricci curvature and applications
• Yuval Peres : The geometry of fair allocation to random points
• Brian White : Gap theorems for minimal submanifolds of spheres

  2014 at Stony Brook

• Robert Bryant : Rolling surfaces and exceptional geometry
• Alice Chang : On positivity of a class of conformal covariant operators
• Mihalis Dafermos : On null singularities for the Einstein vacuum equations and the strong cosmic censorship conjecture in general relativity
• Kenji Fukaya : Mirror symmetry between Toric A model and LG B model: some recent progress
• Matthew Gursky : Critical metrics on connected sums of Einstein four-manifolds
• Robert Haslhofer : Mean curvature flow with surgery
• Andre Neves : Existence of minimal hypersurfaces
• Song Sun : Kähler-Einstein metrics: Gromov-Hausdorff limits and algebraic geometry

  2015 at Courant

• Gábor Székelyhidi : Kahler-Einstein metrics along the smooth continuity method
• Blaine Lawson : Potential theory for nonlinear PDE's
• John Pardon : Existence of Lefschetz vibrations on Stein/Weinstein domains
• Raanan Schul : Qualitative and quantitative rectifiability
• Ursula Hamenstädt : A Gromov/Thurston rigidity theorem for hyperbolic groups
• Tatiana Toro : Almost minimizers with free boundary
• Richard Bamler : There are finitely many surgeries in Perelman's Ricci flow

  2016 at Princeton

• Claude LeBrun : Mass in Kähler Geometry
• Ian Agol : Pseudo-Anosov stretch factors and homology of mapping tori
• Davi Maximo : Minimal surfaces with bounded index
• Fernando Marques : Morse index and multiplicity of min-max minimal hypersurfaces
• Nancy Hingston : Loop Products, Index Growth, and Dynamics
• Jennifer Hom : Symplectic four-manifolds and Heegaard Floer homology
• Fengbo Hang : Fourth order Paneitz operator and Q curvature equation
• Jake Solomon : The space of positive Lagrangians

  2017 at Duke

• Lucas Ambrozio - Some new results for free boundary minimal surfaces
• Otis Chodosh - Some new results on the global geometry of scalar curvature
• Mark Haskins
• Chi Li - On metric tangent cones at Klt singularities
• Marco Radeschi - "When all geodesics are closed"
• Christina Sormani - "The Limits of Sequences of manifolds with Nonnegative Scalar Curvature"
• Jeff Streets - Generalized Kahler Ricci flow and a generalized Calabi conjecture

  2018 at Penn

• Jean-Pierre Bourguignon
• Eugenio Calabi
• Yakov Eliashberg
• Carolyn S. Gordon
• Daniel Ketover
• Yevgeny Liokumovich
• Rick Schoen
• Jenny Wilson

  2019 at Maryland

• Yann Brenier - Fluid Mechanics and Geometry
• Dietmar Salamon - Moment maps in symplectic and Kähler geometry
• Aleksandr Logunov - Zero sets of Laplace eigenfunctions
• Jim Bryan AG - The enumerative geometry and arithmetic of some of the world’s Tiniest Calabi-Yau threefolds
• Yi Wang - Boundary operator associated to σ_k curvature
• Steven Zelditch - Spectral asymptotics on stationary spacetimes
• Xuwen Zhu Spherical Metrics with Conical Singularities
• Alex Wright - Nearly Fuchsian surface subgroups of finite covolume Kleinian groups