I am in my sixth year as a graduate student in the Mathematics
Department at SUNY Stony Brook. On the right is a picture of hyperbolic
space where I spend quite a bit of time. I now live with my wife Kashi
in Williamsburg.
Here is some information
on my thesis, research plan, teaching philosophy, etc.
Three-manifold
topology and geometric group theory are (currently) my primary interest
(some relevant pages). I
was an undergraduate at UC
Berkeley.
(A while ago) I wrote some notes for a talk I gave on Teichmuller Theory from the point
of
view of hyperbolic geometry (5/99); check out the notes in
either
dvi or ps
format
(these were updated 9/99).
Last semester I taught Mathematical Logic (math/cs 371) (Spring 2003). Here
is the: Course
Homepage.
Here are two pictures of Kashi and I in our
neighborhood in February 2003
in the middle of a snowstorm.
Here are some pages of
pictures of friends and family:
I am a fan of both cinema and music.
As far is cinema is concerned my favorite directors include David Lynch (my favorite film by him is
Lost Highway), Woody Allen (Annie Hall and Love and
Death top the list), Jodorowski, and Egoyan. Except for
Memento and Chunhyang
most movies I've seen lately in the theater haven't been very good. But
some recent good videos have included: Steal This Movie,
Princess Bride, Family
Viewing, La Haine. A great reason to visit Williamsburg is Ocularis, which is the name
for the series of art films which are shown on sunday and monday nights in
a local bar.
Music:
Urban Anthropology: Check out the
Mike Davis stuff... In particular, "Hell
factories in the field: a prison-industrial complex" is a great article
about human/animal rights violations in California prisons. Read it to
find out what situations inmates have been placed in which "...behavioral
psychologists have testified in court, rats confined in such circumstances
invariably
go berserk and eat each other."
Below are some links to various mathematical sites:
Here is a good geometry puzzle which is
accessible to anyone who knows how to compute the area of a triangle.
I would really like to know of a web page with a good Introduction to
3-manifolds. Or one with a good introduction to hyperbolic structures on
surface. Or ... Something which would be good to refer
non-mathematicians
to. If anyone knows of one please email me and let me know. Otherwise
perhaps I'll write one (some day).
I like to cook, especially interesting foods and exotic fruits.The more
bizarre the fruit the better the experience. Until I get around to putting
some of my recipes online you will need to settle for the best link for
information about exotic fruits: Fruits of
Warm Climates by Julia F. Morton. The book is published and cost
$85, but is available online through the Purdue horticulture school for
free!!!
Warning:
"The Durian is,
however, sometimes dangerous. When the fruit begins to ripen it falls
daily and almost hourly, and accidents not unfrequently happen to persons
walking
or working under the trees. When a Durian strikes a man in its fall, it
produces a dreadful wound, the strong spines tearing open the flesh, while
the blow
itself is very heavy; but from this very circumstance death rarely ensues,
the copious effusion of blood preventing the inflammation which might
otherwise
take place. A Dyak chief informed me that he had been struck down by a
Durian falling on his head, which he thought would certainly have caused
his
death, yet he recovered in a very short time."
Excerpt from The Malay Archipelago, by Alfred
Russel Wallace. Dover Publishing Inc., Pp 56-58
Remark: If your
name is not here and you feel it should be, then let me know and I will add
it. Conversely, if you name is here and you believe it does not belong
then I should probably be notified about that as well!
I can be reached at jabehr@math.sunysb.edu
Sometimes I have a beard and
sometimes I don't. If you want to vote on which you prefer then check out
this survey (written
by Tom Insel) Some other sites
dedicated to beards are: Tom's Facial
Hair and State of the Beard
O' Jobs. 
