MATH 7510: Berstein Seminar in Topology (Fall 2011)

Instructor: Karen Vogtmann

The general topic of the seminar will be geometric group theory, with specific emphasis on using geometry to study surface mapping class groups and automorphism groups of free groups. Analogies will be drawn between both classes of groups and classical matrix groups.

This course is a seminar in which students explore a single topic or series of related topics in topology. The students explain the material in informal presentations to the rest of the class. One goal of the class will be to produce a readable exposition of the material presented.