William W. Menasco

twisting saddles

Professor of Mathematics
Department of Mathematics
University at Buffalo
244 Mathematics Building
Buffalo, New York 14260-2900
U. S. A.
Office: Mathematics Building112
Phone: 716-645-8765
Fax: 716-634-5039
E-mail: menasco@buffalo.edu

My research interests are in the geometric topology, 3 & 4-manifolds, knot theory, braid theory, hyperbolic geometry, and dynamical systems.

Recent publications

(with R. Kleinberg) Train tracks and Zipping Sequences for Pseudo-Anosov Braids, Knot Theory and Its Applications. Chaos Solitons Fractals 9 (1998), no. 4-5, 793--809.
Closed Braids and Heegaard Splittings, preprint 1999, to appear in Knots, Braids, and Mapping Class Groups: Papers dedicated to Professor Joan Birman. [.pdf (Acrobat) version]
Knots, Braids, and Mapping Class Groups: Papers dedicated to Professor Joan Birman, Ed. J. Gilman, W. Menasco, and X.-S. Lin, International Press.
(with X. Zhang) Notes on Tangles, 2-Handle Additions And Exceptional Dehn Fillings, Pacific Journal of Mathematics.Vol. 198 (2001), No. 1, 149–174 [.pdf (Acrobat) version]
On Iterated Torus Knots and Transversal Knots, Geometry & Topology, Vol. 5 (2001) Paper no. 21, pages 651--682. [.pdf (Acrobat) version]
(with X. Zhang)Positive knots and knots with braid index three have property-P, Knot Theory its Ramifications,12, 427 (2003). [.pdf (Acrobat) version]
(with J. Birman) On Markov's Theorem, preprint 2001, Proceddings of Knots 2000-Journal of Knot Theory and its Ramifications , 295-310 (2001) [.pdf (Acrobat) version]
(with J. Birman) Stabilization in the braid groups-I:MTWS, Geometry & Topology 10 (2006), 413-540. [.pdf (Acrobat version)]
(with J. Birman) ,Stabilization in the braid groups-II: Transversal simplicity of knots Geometry & Topology. 10 (2006) 1425–1452 [.pdf(Acrobat version)]

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Courses and Seminars

Web sites that are of interest to me:

Small minds are concerned with the extraordinary, great minds with the ordinary. Blaise Pascal.