Imagine a coffee mug and a cinnamon donut on the table before you. They appear as completely different objects -- but to a mathematician, the mug and the donut are topologically equivalent, "homeomorphic," because (at least conceptually) you can bend and mold one shape into the other without cutting, tearing, passing it through itself or glueing.
Topologists study geometric objects and how they hold up when deformed by stretching, twisting or bending. They explore how these objects fit together, how you can reshape them and what you can do with them in any number of dimensions.
"Cornell has had a considerable impact across many subfields of topology and across decades, reflecting and at times directing the mainstream of the subject," says Martin Bridson M.A. '89, Ph.D. '91, the Whitehead Professor of Pure Mathematics at the University of Oxford and the president of the Clay Mathematics Institute.
Read the full story on The College of Arts & Sciences website.
