Background
I hail from Bucharest, Romania. I did my undergraduate studies at the Faculty of Mathematics of the University of Bucharest. Here is a picture from those days.
For my graduate studies, I went to Columbia University, receiving my Ph.D. degree in 1984. Here is a picture from around that time, taken in Cambridge, UK.
After a J.W. Gibbs Instructorship at Yale University, I came in 1986 to Northeastern University, where I've been ever since.
Research
My research interests are in Topology, and how it relates to Algebra, Geometry, and Combinatorics. I mainly study hyperplane arrangements, cohomology jumping loci, and generalized moment angle complexes. I also study various problems concerning the topology and geometry of knots, links, and manifolds, and the homology and lower central series of discrete groups. Below are some recent papers and preprints (click here
for a complete list).
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Toric complexes and Artin kernels (with S. Papadima), Adv. Math. 220 (2009), no. 2, 441-477.
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Non-finiteness properties of fundamental groups of smooth projective varieties (with A. Dimca and S. Papadima), J. Reine Angew. Math 629 (2009), 89-105.
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Which 3-manifold groups are Kähler groups? (with A. Dimca), J. Eur. Math. Soc. 11 (2009), no. 3, 521-528.
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Topology and geometry of cohomology jump loci (with A. Dimca and S. Papadima), Duke Math. J. 148 (2009), no. 3, 405-457.
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Geometric and algebraic aspects of 1-formality (with S. Papadima), Bull. Math. Soc. Sci. Math. Roumanie 52 (2009), no. 3, 355-375.
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The spectral sequence of an equivariant chain complex and homology with local coefficients (with S. Papadima), Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 362 (2010), no. 5, 2685-2721.
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Bieri-Neumann-Strebel-Renz invariants and homology jumping loci (with S. Papadima), Proc. London Math. Society, 100 (2010), no. 3, 795-834.
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Quasi-Kähler groups, 3-manifold groups, and formality (with A. Dimca and S. Papadima), Math. Zeitschrift, posted Jan. 28, 2010.
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Algebraic monodromy and obstructions to formality
(with S. Papadima), Forum Math., posted Feb. 15, 2010.
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Fundamental groups, Alexander invariants, and cohomology jumping loci, preprint, Oct. 2009, to appear in Contemp. Math.
Teaching
I teach a variety of math courses, both at the undergraduate and graduate level. If you are interested in taking a directed study course or a reading course with me (in addition to those courses regularly offered), please contact me.