Selman Akbulut
{{Short description|Turkish mathematician (born 1949)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Selman Akbulut
| image = Selman Akbulut.jpg
| alt =
| caption = Selman Akbulut at Oberwolfach in 2012.
| birth_name =
| birth_date = 1949
| birth_place = Balıkesir, Turkey
| death_date =
| death_place =
| nationality = Turkish
| education = University of California
| other_names =
| occupation = Mathematician
| years_active =
| known_for = Akbulut cork
| notable_works =
}}
Selman Akbulut (born 1949) is a Turkish mathematician, specializing in research in topology, and geometry. He was a professor at Michigan State University until February 2020.
Career
In 1975, he earned his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley as a student of Robion Kirby. In topology, he has worked on handlebody theory, low-dimensional manifolds,{{cite book |last1=Akbulut |first1=Selman |title=4-manifolds |date=2016 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780198784869 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1xMBDQAAQBAJ |accessdate=13 August 2019 |language=en}} symplectic topology, G2 manifolds. In the topology of real-algebraic sets, he and Henry C. King proved that every compact piecewise-linear manifold is a real-algebraic set; they discovered new topological invariants of real-algebraic sets.S. Akbulut and H.C. King, Topology of real algebraic sets, MSRI Publications, 25. Springer-Verlag, New York (1992) {{isbn|0-387-97744-9}}
He was a visiting scholar several times at the Institute for Advanced Study (in 1975-76, 1980–81, 2002, and 2005).[http://www.ias.edu/people/cos/frontpage?page=1 Institute for Advanced Study: A Community of Scholars] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130106144307/http://www.ias.edu/people/cos/frontpage?page=1 |date=2013-01-06 }}
On February 14, 2020, Akbulut was removed from his tenured position at MSU by the Board of Trustees, after disputes over his teaching allotments and communications with colleagues.{{cite news |last1=Graham |first1=Karly |last2=Monroe |first2=Maddie |title=Board of Trustees fires tenured professor for cause |url=https://statenews.com/article/2020/02/board-of-trustees-fires-tenured-professor-for-cause?ct=content_open&cv=cbox_latest |work=The State News |language=en-us}}{{cite web |last1=Stanley |first1=Samuel L. |title=Dismissal of Tenured Faculty for Cause |url=https://trustees.msu.edu/meetings/AA2-Dismissal%20of%20Tenured%20Facutly%20for%20Cause1.pdf |website=MSU Board of Trustees |accessdate=14 February 2020}}{{cite news |last1=Frost |first1=Mikenzie |title=MSU Trustees dismiss tenured professor, address Title IX investigation delays |url=https://wwmt.com/news/state/msu-trustees-dismiss-tenured-professor-address-title-ix-investigation-delays |accessdate=14 February 2020 |work=WWMT |date=14 February 2020}}
Contributions
He has developed 4-dimensional handlebody techniques, settling conjectures and solving problems about 4-manifolds, such as a conjecture of Christopher Zeeman,{{cite journal | last=Akbulut | first=S. | title=A solution to a conjecture of Zeeman | journal=Topology | volume=30 | issue=3 | date=1991 | doi=10.1016/0040-9383(91)90028-3 | pages=513–515 | url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/0040938391900283 }} the Harer–Kas–Kirby conjecture, a problem of Martin Scharlemann,{{cite journal | last=Akbulut | first=S.| title=Scharlemann's Manifold is Standard | journal=The Annals of Mathematics | volume=149 | issue=2 | date=1999 | doi=10.2307/120972 | doi-access=free | pages=497–510 | jstor=120972| arxiv=math/9712255 }} and problems of Sylvain Cappell and Julius Shaneson.{{cite journal | last=Akbulut | first=S. | title=Cappell-Shaneson homotopy spheres are standard | journal=Annals of Mathematics | volume=171 | issue=3 | date=2010 | issn=0003-486X | doi=10.4007/annals.2010.171.2171 | doi-access=free | pages=2171–2175 | url=http://annals.math.princeton.edu/wp-content/uploads/annals-v171-n3-p18-p.pdf }}{{cite journal | last=Akbulut | first=S. | title=Cappell–Shaneson's 4–dimensional s –cobordism | journal=Geometry & Topology | volume=6 | issue=1 | date=2002 | issn=1364-0380 | doi=10.2140/gt.2002.6.425 | doi-access=free | pages=425–494 | url=http://msp.org/gt/2002/6-1/gt-v6-n1-p16-p.pdf }}{{cite journal | last1=Freedman | first1=M.H. | last2=Gompf | first2=R.E. | last3=Morrison | first3=S. | last4=Walker | first4=K. | title=Man and machine thinking about the smooth 4-dimensional Poincaré conjecture | journal=Quantum Topology | volume=1 | issue=2 | date=2010-06-22 | issn=1663-487X | doi=10.4171/qt/5 | doi-access=free | pages=171–208 | url=https://ems.press/content/serial-article-files/36744 | arxiv=0906.5177 }}
He constructed an exotic compact 4-manifold (with boundary) from which he discovered "Akbulut corks".{{cite journal | last=Akbulut | first=S. | title=A fake compact contractible 4-manifold | journal=Journal of Differential Geometry | volume=33 | issue=2 | date=1991-01-01 | issn=0022-040X | doi=10.4310/jdg/1214446320 | doi-access=free | url=https://projecteuclid.org/journals/journal-of-differential-geometry/volume-33/issue-2/A-fake-compact-contractible-4-manifold/10.4310/jdg/1214446320.pdf | pages=335–356}}{{cite journal | last=Akbulut | first=S. | title=An exotic 4-manifold | journal=Journal of Differential Geometry | volume=33 | issue=2 | date=1991-01-01 | issn=0022-040X | doi=10.4310/jdg/1214446321 | doi-access=free | pages=357–361}}{{cite book | last1=Ozbagci | first1=B. | last2=Stipsicz | first2=A.I. | title=Surgery on Contact 3-Manifolds and Stein Surfaces | publisher=Springer Science & Business Media | publication-place=Berlin | date=2004 | isbn=978-3-540-22944-5 | page=14}}{{cite book | last=Scorpan | first=A. | title=The Wild World of 4-Manifolds | publisher=American Mathematical Soc. | publication-place=Providence, RI | date=2005 | isbn=0-8218-3749-4 | page=90}}
His most recent results concern the 4-dimensional smooth Poincaré conjecture.{{cite web |last1=Morrison |first1=Scott |title=Mike Freedman on SPC4 |url=http://sbseminar.wordpress.com/category/low-dimensional-topology/poincare-conjecture/ |website=Secret Blogging Seminar |date=19 April 2011 |accessdate=13 August 2019 |language=en}} He has supervised 14 Ph.D. students as of 2019. He has more than 100 papers and three books published, and several books edited.
Notes
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{MathGenealogy|id=15608}}
- [http://www.selmanakbulut.com/ Akbulut's homepage]
- [https://arxiv.org/find/math/1/au:+Akbulut_S/0/1/0/all/0/1 Akbulut's papers at ArXiv]
- [https://arxiv.org/abs/math/0202086/ Akbulut-King invariants]
- Real algebraic geometry
- Akbulut cork
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Akbulut, Selman}}
Category:20th-century Turkish mathematicians
Category:21st-century Turkish mathematicians
Category:Academic scandals in the United States
Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni