Dr Navid Nabijou
College Research Associate
SpecialisationAlgebraic geometry
Research interestsDr Navid Nabijou is a pure mathematician, specialising in algebraic geometry. This means that he spends most of his time thinking about shapes which can be defined using polynomial equations. He is interested in studying the inherent properties of these shapes, in classifying them and understanding how they relate to one another. His research centres on Gromov-Witten invariants, which are "counts" of curves lying inside such shapes. Though intuitively appealing, these counts are extremely difficult to calculate, and have been a source of fascination for mathematicians since the 19th century. Over the past 30 years, deep connections to theoretical physics have been unearthed, leading to a revitalisation of the field and the discovery of many deep and unexpected results. The common theme in his work is the exploitation of hidden combinatorial structures inherent to parameter spaces of curves, in order to produce new computations and uncover new structures governing the Gromov-Witten invariants. This has required the development of novel combinatorial techniques for probing the geometry of these spaces. He grew up in London, obtaining his undergraduate and doctoral degrees from Imperial College. After that, he spent two years in Glasgow as a postdoctoral researcher, before moving to Cambridge in September 2020 as a Herchel Smith Fellow.