Ian Agol
Ian Agol atAarhus University, August 2012
Born	(1970-05-13)May 13, 1970 (age 54) Los Angeles,California, U.S.
Alma mater	California Institute of Technology University of California, San Diego
Known for	Virtually Haken conjecture Freedman–He–Wang conjecture Wise's conjecture Marden tameness conjecture
Awards	Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics (2016)[1] Veblen Prize in Geometry (2013) Senior Berwick Prize (2012) Clay Research Award (2009)
Scientific career
Fields	Mathematics
Institutions	University of California, Berkeley
Doctoral advisor	Michael Freedman

Ian Agol^{[needs IPA]} (born May 13, 1970) is an Americanmathematician who deals primarily with thetopology ofthree-dimensional manifolds.^[2]

Agol graduated with B.S. in mathematics from theCalifornia Institute of Technology in 1992 and obtained his Ph.D. in 1998 from theUniversity of California, San Diego. At UCSD, his advisor wasMichael Freedman and his thesis wasTopology of Hyperbolic 3-Manifolds.^[3] He is a professor at theUniversity of California, Berkeley^[4] and a former professor at theUniversity of Illinois at Chicago.^[5]

In 2004, Agol proved theMarden tameness conjecture, a conjecture ofAlbert Marden.^[6] It states that a hyperbolic 3-manifold with finitely generatedfundamental group ishomeomorphic to the interior of acompact 3-manifold. The conjecture was also independently proven byDanny Calegari andDavid Gabai, and implies theAhlfors measure conjecture.^[6]

In 2012, he announced a proof of thevirtually Haken conjecture, which was published a year later.^[7] The conjecture (now theorem) states that every aspherical 3-manifold is finitely covered by aHaken manifold.

In 2022, he posted on theArXiv a proof ofCameron Gordon's 1981 conjecture onknot theory saying that ribbon concordance forms a partial ordering on the set of knots.^[8][9]

Agol, Calegari, and Gabai received the 2009Clay Research Award for their proof of the Marden tameness conjecture.^[6]

In 2005, Agol was aGuggenheim Fellow.^[10] In 2012 he became a fellow of theAmerican Mathematical Society.^[11]

In 2013, Agol was awarded theOswald Veblen Prize in Geometry, along withDaniel Wise.^[12]

In 2015, he was awarded the 2016Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics, "for spectacular contributions tolow dimensional topology andgeometric group theory, including work on the solutions of thetameness,virtually Haken andvirtual fibering conjectures."^[13]

In 2016, he was elected to theNational Academy of Sciences.^[14]

His identical twin brother,Eric Agol,^[15][16][17] is an astronomy professor at theUniversity of Washington inSeattle.^[18]

• Ian Agol publications indexed byGoogle Scholar

• 20th-century American mathematicians
• 21st-century American mathematicians
• American topologists
• University of California, San Diego alumni
• University of Illinois Chicago faculty
• University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty
• Living people
• 1970 births
• Clay Research Award recipients
• Fellows of the American Mathematical Society
• Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
• People from Hollywood, Los Angeles
• Mathematicians from California
• American identical twins

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