Professor Sorin Popa

Sorin Popa

UCLA Mathematics Department, Box 951555

Los Angeles, CA 90095-1555

popa@math.ucla.edu

Education

B.S., University of Bucharest, 1976; M.S., University of Bucharest, 1977
Ph.D., University of Bucharest, 1983

Positions

        Professor, UCLA Department of Mathematics, 1987-present (Chair 2009-2012)
        Professor, University of Geneva, 1996-1998
        Principal Researcher, INCREST, 1977-87

Sabbaticals and Visiting Positions

        Visiting Professor at Institut Henri Poincare (under Chaire Blaise Pascal), April-July 2011
        Visiting Professor, College de France and CNRS, 2004-2005
        Mathematical Sciences Research Institute Yearlong Member 2000-2001
        Visiting Professor, University of Paris 6 and 7, 1992, 1995-1996, Summer 2001
        Visiting Professor, E. Schroedinger Institute, Viena, Austria, Summer 1994
        Institut des hautes Etudes Scientifiques Yearlong Member 1991-1992
        Visiting Professor, Institute des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques, June 1989, Spring 1990

Grants 1995-present

      NSF Grant DMS-1101718: Deformation and Rigidity for Groups, Actions, and von Neumann algebras
        NSF Grant DMS-0100883, 2001-2006; NSF Grant DMS-0605456, 2006-2011
        Fond National Suisse Grant, 1996-1998; NSF Grant DMS-9500882, 1995-1998; NSF Grant DMS-9801324, 1998-2001

Honors, special recognition, etc

        Simons Fellow in Mathematics 2012-2013
        E. H. Moore Research Article Prize 2010 (of the American Math Society)
    Ostrowski Prize 2009
Chaire Blaise Pascal 2009
        Plenary Speaker Canadian Mathematical Society Annual Meeting, Ottawa, Dec 2008
        Bourbaki Seminar given by S. Vaes on items [57,64,70,73] of my Publications, June 2007
        Plenary Speaker International Congress of Mathematics, Madrid, Aug. 2006
College de France Medal and Special Lecture Series, Nov. 2004
        Plenary Speaker AMS Meeting, Vanderbilt University, Oct. 2004

Bourbaki Seminar given by A. Connes on item [58] of my Publications, June 2003
Invited Address Joint Annual AMS Meeting, San Antonio, Jan. 1999

        Top 250 most cited mathematicians, 1999 - present
        Guggenheim Fellow, 1995-1996
    CBMS Lecture Series ``Classification of subfactors and related topics", Univ. of Oregon 1993
        Invited Address Section 9 International Congress of Mathematics, Kyoto, Japan , 1990.

The Simion Stoilov Prize of the Romanian Academy of Sciences, 1981

Ph.D. Graduates

        Dietmar Bisch (1991) Professor Vanderbilt University
        Florin Radulescu (1991) Professor University of Rome 2
        Florin Boca (1993) Professor University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
    Tullio Ceccherini (1994) Professor University of Benevento, Italy
        Mihai Petrescu (1997) Video-Software Company, Philadelphia.
        Remus Nicoara (2004) Tenure track at University of Tennessee Knoxville
        Roman Sasyk (2004) Associate Professor University of Buenos Aires
        Jesse Peterson (2006) NSF Fellowship UC Berkeley 2006-2008, tenure track Vanderbilt Univ. 2008, Sloan Fellow 2009.
        Adrian Ioana (2007) Clay Fellowship 2007-2011, tenure track UCSD 2011
        Ionut Chifan (2009) Post Doc Vanderbilt Univ. 2009-2011, tenure track Univ. of Iowa 2011.
        Hiroki Sako (2009; jointly with Yasu Kawahigashi) Post Doc Tokyo University
        Adam Winchester (2012).
        Owen Sizemore (2012).

Recent Professional Service

Coorganiser (with Damien Gaboriau and Stefaan Vaes) of the program Von Neumann algebras and ergodic theory of group actions,
April 18 - July 9, 2011, Institut Henri Poincare in Paris.
Coorganizer (with A. Ioana, N. Ozawa, Y. Shalom) of the Special Session ``von Neumann Algebras and Ergodic Theory'',
AMS Meeting, UCLA Oct 10-12, 2010.
Coorganizer of the UCLA Workshop ``von Neumann Algebras and Ergodic Theory'', March 2009.
Coorganizer of the Oberwolfach Conference in ``von Neumann Algebras and Ergodic Theory'', Oct. 26-30, 2008.
Coorganizer of the Fields Institute Workshop in ``von Neumann Algebras'', Oct 29-Nov 2, 2007.
Coorganizer of the UCLA Workshop ``von Neumann Algebras and Ergodic Theory'', March 2007.
Coorganizer of the UCLA Conference ``Beyond Amenability: Groups, Actions and Op. Alg. '', May 2006
Coorganizer of the AMS Section Meeting ``von Neumann Algebras'', Vanderbilt Univ., October 2004
Coorganizer of the UCLA Conference ``von Neumann Algebras and Ergodic Theory'', May 2003
Editor, Pacific Journal of Mathematics
Editorial Board: Journal of the American Mathematical Society, Journal of Operator Theory, PanAmerican Mathematical Journal
Co-Editor of the Clay Math Institute Proceedings ``Non-commutative Geometry'', April 2007 Conference in honour of A. Connes.
Panel Committee for ICM and for several NSF

Some Recent Talks

        Colloquium Lecture UC San Diego, April 2012.
        Invited speaker ``von Neumann Algebras and Related Topics'' conference at RIMS (Kyoto, Japan), Jan 2012.
        Chaire Blaise Pascal Closing Conference, Institut Math Jussieu, Oct 2011

        Colloquium Lecture University of Rome II (Italy), June 2011
        Lecture Series at the Program von Neumann Algebras and Ergodic Theory of Group Actions, Institut Henri Poincare May 2011
Mini Course at the Spring Institute Non-Commutative Geometry and operator Algebras, Vanderbilt Univ. May 2010
        Invited Speaker ``Operator Algebras Conference in Honor of Uffe Haagerup's 60the birthday'', Coopenhagen April 2010.
        Colloquium Lecture Basel Universit, March 2010.
        Invited Speaker SUMIRFAS Conference, Texas A&M, Aug. 2009.
        Invited Speaker ``Non-commutative Geometry'' Coference in Honor
                of Ricu Moscovici 65th Birthday, Max Planck Institute, Bonn, July 2009.
        Main Speaker ``East Coast Operator Algebra'' meeting, Penn State, Oct 2008.
        Invited Speaker ``Operator Algebras'', Oberwolfach Aug 2008.
        Invited Speaker ``Geometry, Rigidity and Group Actions'', Conference in Honor
               of Bob Zimmer 60'th Bithday, Sept. 6-9, 2007, University of Chicago.
        Invited Speaker ``von Neumann Algebras and Non-Commutative Geometry'', Coference
               in Honor of Alain Connes 60'th Bithday, April 2-6, 2007, Inst Henri Poincare (Paris)
        Invited Speaker ``Groupoids in Oper. Alg. and Noncommut. Geometry'' Conference,
               Institut Henri Poincare (Paris), February 2007.
        Invited Speaker ``US-Japan Conference in Operator Algebras'', University of Hawai, January 2007.
        Colloquium Lecture Vanderbilt University, Nov. 2006.
        Invited Speaker ``von Neumann algebras'' BIRS Center, Banff (Canada) Sept. 2006.
        Invited Speaker ``Logic and Mathematics'' University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, June 9-11, 2006.
        Invited Speaker ``Geom. and prob. methods in group theory and dyn. sys.'' Texas A&M Nov. 2005.
        Main Speaker ``East Coast Operator Algebra'' Conference, University of Philadelphia, October 2005.
Colloquium Lecture University of Rome 2, Tor Vergata, September 2005.
        Invited Speaker ``Operator Algebra'' Conference, Oberwolfach (Germany), August 2005.
        Invited Lecture ``Group actions, rigidity and dynamics'', Banff (Canada) July 2005.
        Minicourse Lecturer, ``Spring Institute on Noncommutative Geometry'', Vanderbilt Univ., May 2005
        Main Speaker, ``Geometric Group Theory and Harmonic Analysis'', Cortona, June 2004
        Colloquium Lecture University of California Riverside, April 2004.
        Main Speaker, School in ``von Neumann Algebras'', Marseille, February 2004
        Main Speaker: ``Group Theory'', Gaeta (Italy), June 2003