I am a fifth year graduate student in the mathematics department at Stony Brook University. Currently, I am working in a field known as Quantum Algebra which uses ideas from representation theory to compute invariants of 3-manifolds. I am fascinated with applications of these ideas to quantum computing and am spending quite a bit of time trying to learn about these. My thesis advisor is Alexander Kirillov, Jr. I love talking about math and also meeting new people, so please drop by my office if you feel like chatting. My email address is balsam at IHATEGETTINGSPAMmath dot sunysb dot edu (Remove the obvious). Thanks for visiting!
Proficiency Algebra, Stony Brook University (Fall 2010)
Applied Real Analysis, Stony Brook University (Summer 2010)
Pre-Calculus, Stony Brook University (Summer 2008)
Teaching assistant/recitation instructor for various math classes, Stony Brook University, (Fall 2010-Spring 2012)
Talks
”Extended TQFTs, Lattice Models, and Turaev-Viro Theory”, Workshop on Representation Theoretical and Categorical Structures in Quantum Geometry and Conformal Field
Theory, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, November 2, 2011
”A Tale of Two TQFTs”, Centre for Quantum Geometry of Moduli Spaces, Aarhus University, October 24, 2011
”State Sums and Extended Topological Quantum Field Theories” Higher Structures in
Topology and Geometry V, Hamburg University, May 25, 2011
”Extended TQFTs and Topological Quantum Computation”, Union College Mathematics
Conference, April 30, 2011
”Quantum Invariants of 3-manifolds”, Graduate Student Seminar, SUNY- Stony Brook,
September 8, 2010
”Turaev-Viro Invariants as an Extended TQFT”, AMS Special Session on Quantum Invariants of 3-manifolds and Modular Categories, St. Paul, Minneapolis, April 10, 2010
