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Carolyn Abbott, Assistant Professor of Mathematics, has received a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program offers the NSF’s most prestigious awards to early-career faculty “who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization.”
Professor Abbott said, “This grant will support my research by providing travel support that will allow members of my group to travel to conferences to present our research, as well as to bring my collaborators to Brandeis so we can have dedicated time to make progress on our research projects. Moreover, the support for the associated educational components will help build the mathematical community at Brandeis, in the greater Boston-area, and nationwide.”
Professor Abbott has been an assistant professor at Brandeis since 2021, with research specializing in geometric group theory and hyperbolic geometry. The following is a more detailed research description as provided by the professor:
“The collection of symmetries of an object form an algebraic object called a group. For example, the reflections and rotations of a square form a group of size eight. Groups act on spaces: a 90 degree rotation acts on the square by turning it counterclockwise. Studying groups through the spaces on which they act leads to many questions. One could ask, for example, how many different groups act on a square? What do such groups have in common? Geometric group theory aims to answer such questions by translating the geometric properties of spaces on which a group acts into algebraic properties of the group. This project generalizes these techniques to larger classes of groups, many of which act on spaces that have a particular geometric structure, called hyperbolicity. The project supports and encourages student involvement and diversity in mathematics through support for a department and an area-wide seminar, the establishment of a research lab for undergraduates at Brandeis University, and a research workshop for early career women working in the area of groups, geometry, and dynamics.”
