Malcolm Gabbard — Shoelaces in the 4th Dimension: An Introduction to Low-Dimensional Topology

Topology is a large field of mathematics which centers around creating spaces from sets and then considering deformations of these spaces. In this talk we will briefly introduce some foundational definitions and results you would find in an introduction to topology class. With this foundation we will quickly build up to modern questions in low-dimensional topology. In particular, we will learn what knots in the 4th dimension are, how we can visualize them, and why we should care.