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The photo: Me and a very friendly pigeon in Saint Mark's Square, Venice.

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Curriculum Vitae

Ben Webster

Email: bwebste@math.ias.edu
Office Address: School of Mathematics
Institute for Advanced Study
Princeton, NJ 08540
Website: http://math.ias.edu/~bwebste
Citizenship: USA

Employment/Education:

2008-2010: C.L.E. Moore Instructor and NSF Postdoctoral Fellow, M.I.T.
Sponsoring Scientist: R. Bezrukavnikov.

2007-2008: Member and NSF Postdoctoral Fellow, Institute for Advanced Study.

2002-2007: Ph.D. in Mathematics, University of California, Berkeley (expected).
Supervisor: N. Reshetikhin.
Thesis: ``Algebraic Poisson Geometry in Representation Theory and Topology.''

1998-2002: B.A. in Mathematics, Simon's Rock College, summa cum laude
Supervisor: W. Dunbar

As visitor

2006 Fall: Center for the Topology and Quantization of Moduli Spaces, (Århus, Denmark).
2001 Spring: Budapest Semesters in Mathematics, (Budapest, Hungary).


Scientific/Academic Honors and Grants:

2007-2011 NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship.
2007 Summer Clay Liftoff Fellowship.
2003-2007 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.


Research Interests:

Knot theory and representation theory via algebraic and Poisson geometry.


Publications and Preprints:

available at http://math.ias.edu/~bwebste/publications.html

in preparation:

submitted:

in press:

2007

2006


Selected Lectures:

2008

Apr. U. Mass. (Geometry Seminar): 2-block Springer fibers and Khovanov's arc algebra.

Apr. IAS (Special Lecture): Hypertoric varieties and Koszul duality.

2007

Dec. Princeton (Topology Seminar): 2-block Springer fibers and Khovanov's arc algebra.

Nov. Edinburgh (Maxwell Colloquium): A sheaf-theoretic approach to knot homology.

Oct. Berkeley (RTCG Seminar): 2-block Springer fibers and category ${\mathcal O}$.

Oct. U. of Oregon (Algebra Seminar): 2-block Springer fibers and category ${\mathcal O}$.

Aug. Kahului (Subfactors in Maui): A categorification of the Hecke algebra and knot invariants.

Jul. Freiburg, Germany (Seminar in Arbeitsguppe Algebra): Knot theory and geometric representation theory.

Jul. Faro, Portugal (Oporto meeting on link homology): The geometry of Soergel bimodules.

Jun. Aarhus, Denmark (Workshop on TQFT and geometry): The geometry of Soergel bimodules.

May Davis (Quantum Algebra seminar): Computation in Khovanov-Rozansky homology.

Mar. Berkeley (Representation Theory seminar): Computation in Khovanov-Rozansky homology.

Feb. Stanford (Symplectic Geometry seminar): Computation in Khovanov-Rozansky homology.

2006

Dec. Sandbjerg, Denmark (CTQM Retreat): Computation in Khovanov-Rozansky homology II.

Nov. Århus, Denmark (Topology Seminar): Computation in Khovanov-Rozansky homology.

July Reisenburg, Germany (IRTG Summer School): Stratifications á la Deodhar.

Apr. Berkeley (Subfactor seminar): Khovanov homology and slice genus.

Feb. Columbia (Gauge Theory seminar): Computation in Khovanov-Rozansky homology.

Jan. Berkeley (Representation Theory, Geometry and Combinatorics seminar):
Computation in Khovanov-Rozansky homology.

2005

Dec. GWU (Knots in Washington):
Khovanov-Rozansky homology and a graphical calculus for tensor products.

Oct. Oregon (Lie Groups, Lie Algebras and their Representations):
Stabilization in Kac-Moody algebras and quiver varieties.

May Berkeley (Workshop on Representation Theory and Geometry):
Stabilization in Kac-Moody algebras and quiver varieties.

Apr. Santa Barbara (AMS Meeting): Kazhdan-Lusztig polynomials for hypertoric varieties.

Apr. Northwestern (Grad Student Topology Conf.): An introduction to intersection cohomology.

2004

Oct. Berkeley (RTG&C seminar): Intersection cohomology of hypertoric varieties.

Mar. Berkeley (RTG&C seminar): Kac-Moody algebras and quiver varieties.

2003

Mar. Baton Rouge (AMS meeting):
Beaulieu's construction/Mackey functors and Sunada's theorem.


Professional Activities:

May 2005 Organizer (with N. Reshetikhin) for workshop ``Representation Theory and Geometry'' in Berkeley.

June 2004 Participant in ``MRI Spring School on Lie Groups in Analysis, Geometry and Mechanics'' in Utrecht, The Netherlands.

2003 Co-organizer of weekly graduate student seminar ``Many Cheerful Facts'' at Berkeley.

Summer 2001 Participant in ``Research Experiences for Undergraduates'' at Louisiana State University (supervisor: Robert Perlis)


Teaching Activities:

Feb. 2007 Gave mini-course on ``The geometry of category $\mathcal O$'' in Berkeley.

Fall 2006 Tutor for graduate students as complement to course ``Quantization of Moduli Spaces.''

Fall 2005 Teaching assistant for multivariable calculus with Prof. Alan Weinstein.

Fall 2002 Teaching assistant for calculus (second of two semesters) with Prof. Hung-Hsi Wu.

September 2002 Attended Berkeley Mathematics Department training course for teaching assistants.

1999-2002 Tutor for Simon's Rock Tutoring and Writing Center.