On 11 April, the European Research Council (ERC) announced that András Stipsicz, Director of HUN-REN Alfréd Rényi Institute of Mathematics, has been awarded the prestigious Advanced Grant scheme for the second time. His project, titled "Knots and Surfaces on four-manifolds", is aimed at investigating several interrelated questions concerning four-dimensional smooth manifolds. This funding, totalling 2 million euros, marks the twelfth ERC grant for HUN-REN Rényi Institute, and the second for Professor Stipsicz himself.
As the title “Knots and Surfaces in four-manifolds” suggests, the current project aims to investigate several interrelated questions concerning four-dimensional smooth manifolds. These manifolds are quite irregular when compared to other dimensions, in fact, there are several interesting phenomena which only occur in dimension four. The main goal of the project is to develop methods and approaches to better understand these peculiar objects. The novelty in their approach is the incorporation of knots and their slice surfaces in a significant and organized manner into the picture.
András Stipsicz is a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, an expert in low-dimensional topology and in contact topology. He received his diploma from Eötvös Loránd University, and his PhD from Rutgers University. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Irvine and spent several semesters at MSRI Berkeley, at the IAS in Princeton at Princeton University, the Max Planck Institute in Bonn, and the Mittag-Leffler Institute in Stockholm. His first successful Advanced Grant project “Low Dimensional Topology in Budapest” started in 2012
Advanced grants can be awarded to researchers who have a track record of significant research achievements in the past 10 years. The researchers should have exceptional qualifications in terms of research leadership and management as well as research contributions.
You can read further details on the ERC website. The full list of winners is available here.