Professor R. İnanç Baykur, professor of mathematics in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, has been selected as a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society (AMS) for the Class of 2026.
The AMS notes that Fellows are selected for excellence in research, exposition, and service to the profession. The society’s goal is to highlight and celebrate sustained, high-impact contributions that advance the mathematical sciences. Professor Baykur is listed among the 2026 class of honorees comprising 40 mathematical scientists worldwide.
Baykur’s research spans low-dimensional geometry and topology, with a focus on smooth 4-manifolds. He is known for foundational advances involving Lefschetz fibrations and their generalizations, and the construction and classification of exotic smooth structures—using a variety of tools and ideas from mapping class groups, gauge theory, and symplectic topology. Some of the recent results of Professor Baykur include the construction of the smallest exotic signature-zero 4-manifolds known to date, the resolution of a 30-year-old Kirby problem on geometric simple connectivity, the discovery of unexpected Stein fillings of many new links of singularities, counterexamples to Nielsen realization in dimension four, and a surgery classification for nonorientable 4-manifolds.
Professor Baykur will be recognized with the 2026 class of Fellows at a special reception at the AMS Joint Mathematical Meetings in Washington, D.C., this coming January. For more on his research and accomplishments, visit his faculty profile page.