Lisa Piccirillo

Lisa Piccirillo is an American mathematician who works on geometry and low-dimensional topology. In 2020, Piccirillo published a mathematical proof in the journal Annals of Mathematics determining that the Conway knot is not a slice knot,[1] answering an unsolved problem in knot theory first proposed over fifty years prior by English mathematician John Horton Conway.[2] She is currently Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[3]

Lisa Piccirillo
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater
Known forSolving the Conway knot
Scientific career
Fields
ThesisKnot traces and the slice genus (2019)
Doctoral advisorJohn Luecke

Education

Piccirillo earned a B.S. in Mathematics from Boston College in 2013 and a PhD in low-dimensional topology at the University of Texas at Austin under the supervision of John Luecke in 2019, followed by postdoctoral research at Brandeis University.[2][4][5]

Work
The Conway Knot.

The slice property of the Conway knot was a long-standing unsolved problem in knot theory.[2][6] The knot was named after its discoverer, English mathematician John Horton Conway, who first wrote about the knot in 1970. The Conway knot was determined to be topologically slice in the 1980s; however the nature of its sliceness, and whether or not it was smoothly slice, eluded mathematicians for decades up until Piccirillo's breakthrough.[2] Piccirillo's work on the Conway knot completed the classification of slice knots with under thirteen crossings, as the Conway knot had been the last outstanding knot in its group fully unclassified.[1]

Following the publication of Piccirillo's proof in Annals of Mathematics, she was offered a tenure-track position at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology set to begin fourteen months after the completion of her doctorate.[2][7]

References
  1. Piccirillo, Lisa (2020). "The Conway knot is not slice". Annals of Mathematics. 191 (2): 581–591. arXiv:1808.02923. doi:10.4007/annals.2020.191.2.5. ISSN 0003-486X. JSTOR 10.4007/annals.2020.191.2.5.
  2. Klarreich, Erica. "Graduate Student Solves Decades-Old Conway Knot Problem". Quanta Magazine. Retrieved May 20, 2020.
  3. "Lisa Piccirillo - MIT Mathematics". Retrieved August 12, 2020.
  4. "Curriculum vitae". Retrieved May 19, 2020.
  5. "Studying Knots and Four-Dimensional Spaces". University of Texas at Austin. Retrieved May 20, 2020.
  6. Blakemore, Erin. "Graduate student untangles nature of Conway knot". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 26, 2020.
  7. "Lisa Piccirillo Solves Decades-Old Conway Knot Problem – Women In Math". math.mit.edu. Retrieved May 26, 2020.
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