Geometric Group Theory Seminar
In Fall 2026, we will continue running Purdue Geometric Group Theory (GGT) Seminar. It will be held on Fridays 11am-noon Eastern Time in Math 731 if we meet in person. Some talks will be on zoom and the link will be included in the email announcement.
We are maintaining an email list for this seminar, through which we send notifications regarding talks and seminar lunches/dinners. You can subscribe to the list (choose "regular" role) by the link here: https://lists.purdue.edu/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=GGT-SEMINAR&A=1
Lvzhou Chen, Yash Lodha, Ben McReynolds are organizing this seminar in Fall 2026.
Fall 2026
September 8, 2026 (Tuesday, Colloquium)
Daniel Groves (UIC)
Title: 3-manifold groups?
Abstract: Due to a vast amount of work over the last decades, the fundamental groups of 3-manifolds are by now very well understood. I will focus on the following (wide open) question: When is a discrete group the fundamental group of a compact 3-manifold? I'll discuss the background to this question, what is known in various dimensions, and then focus on the case of greatest interest in 3 dimensional topology - the hyperbolic case. Finally, I'll report on some recent work around this question in joint work with Haissinsky, Manning, Osajda, Sisto, and Walsh.
September 25, 2026
Carolyn Abbott (Brandeis University)
October 23, 2026
Ino Loukidou (UChicago)
November 27, 2026 (No talk due to Thanksgiving)