Weiping Li received his Ph.D. in 1992 under the direction of R. Fintushel. Weiping works on invariants of 3- and 4-dimensional topology. His first position was Gibbs Instructor at Yale. Weiping is currently an SW Bell Professor of Mathematics at Oklahoma State University.

Grisha Mikhalkin received his Ph.D. in 1993 with adviser S. Akbulut. Grisha's first positions were at I.A.S. and as Benjamin Pierce Assistant Professor at Harvard. He is currently Professor at the University of Geneva. Grisha works in real algebraic geometry and its applications to low-dimensional topology. He was an invited lecturer at ICM 2006 in Madrid.

Radhouane Sellami received his Ph.D. in 1993 with adviser S. Akbulut. Radhouane's area of expertise is real toric geometry.

Yildiray Ozan completed his Ph.D. in 1994 under the direction of S. Akbulut. His first position was instructor at Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey, where he is currently an Associate Professor. Yildiray works on the topology of real algebraic varieties and low-dimensional topology.

Liviu Nicolaescu finished his Ph.D. in 1994 with adviser T. Parker. Liviu's first position was instructor at the University of Michigan. He is currently Professor of Mathematics at Notre Dame. Liviu's area of interest is geometric analysis with a topological bias.

Wojciech Wieczorek received his Ph.D. in 1995 with adviser R. Fintushel. His first position was instructor at the University of Georgia. Wojciech works on invariants of 4-manifolds. He is currently a lecturer at Stanford University.

Mustafa Korkmaz finished his Ph.D. in 1996 under the direction of N. Ivanov. His first position was instructor at METU. Mustafa works on algebraic properties of surface mapping class groups as well as Lefschetz fibrations on 4-manifolds. He is currently an Associate Professor at Middle East Technical University. In 2001 Mustafa recieived the junior scientist award given by TUBITAK, the Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey, and in 2003 the TUBA-GEBIP prize awarded by the Turkish Academy of Sciences.

Eleny Ionel received her Ph.D. in 1996 with adviser T. Parker. Her first position was a Moore instructorship at MIT. Elly works on symplectic geometry and gauge theory. She was an invited lecturer at the 2002 I.C.M. in Beijing as well as being a Sloan Fellow. Elly is currently Professor at Stanford University.

Jongil Park completed his Ph.D. in 1996 with adviser R. Fintushel. Jongil's first position was instructor at the University of California, Irvine. He is currently Professor at Seoul National University. Jongil works on the topology of smooth 4-manifolds. Jongil has been invited to speak at the 2010 ICM in Hyderabad.

Tedi Draghici received his Ph.D. in 1997 under the supervision of D. Blair. His first position was Assistant Professor at Northeastern Illinois University. Tedi is currently an Associate Professor at Florida International University. His main areas of interest are Riemannian and symplectic geometry.

Rostislav Matveyev received his Ph.D. in 1997 under the direction of S. Akbulut. His first position was instructor at SUNY Stonybrook. Slava works on 4-dimensional topology. He is currently a Mitarbeiter in the Institute at the University of Leipzig.

Weimin Chen finished his Ph.D. in 1998 with adviser S. Akbulut. Weimin's first position was a Van Vleck instructorship at the University of Wisconsin. Weimin's research interest is in low-dimensional topology and orbifold theory. He is currently an Associate Professor at University of Massachusetts - Amherst.

Feraydoun Taherkhani received his Ph.D. in 1999 with N. Ivanov. Fery is now working at a German Investment bank in Dusseldorf.

Thomas Mark completed his Ph.D. in 2000 with adviser R. Fintushel. His first position was a postdoctoral instructorship at the University of California at Berkeley. Tom works on 3 and 4-manifolds, Seiberg-Witten theory, and Ozsvath-Szabo invariants. Tom is currently Assistant Professor at the University of Virginia.

Sema Salur received her Ph.D. in 2000 with adviser Gang Tian (MIT). Sema's first position was Visiting Assistant Professor at Cornell University, and she is currently an Associate Professor at the University of Rochester. Sema works on the geometry of special Lagrangian submanifolds.

HeeSook Park completed her Ph.D. in 2001 with adviser N. Ivanov. She works on bounded cohomology. Her first position was visiting assistant professor at Vassar College. She is currently a Research Professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology

Junho Lee finished his Ph.D. in 2001 with T. Parker. Junho works on symplectic geometry and Gromov-Witten invariants. His first position was Dunham Jackson Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota. Junho is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Central Florida.

Elmas Irmak received her Ph.D. in 2002 under the direction of J. McCarthy. Her first position was Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan. Elmas is currently an Assistant Professor at Bowling Green State University. She works on mapping class groups.

Stanislav Jabuka finished his Ph.D. in 2002 with R. Fintushel. His first position was VIGRE Assistant Professor at Columbia University. Slaven is currently an Associate Professor at the University of Nevada - Reno. He works on Seiberg-Witten and Gromov theory and Ozsvath-Szabo invariants.

William Vautaw completed his Ph.D. in 2002 with J. McCarthy. Bill's first position is Assistant Professor at Southeastern Louisiana University. He works on surface mapping class groups. Bill is currently an Assistant Professor at Saginaw Valley State University.

Seongchun Kwon received her Ph.D. in 2003 under the direction of S. Akbulut. Her first position is Postdoctoral Fellow at MSRI, and she is currently a visiting professor at Oklahoma State University. Seongchun works on real algebraic geometry and orbifold theory.

Jens von Bergmann received his Ph.D.in 2004 under the direction of T. Parker. His first position is Assistant Professor at the University of Calgary. Jens works on geometric analysis and symplectic topology.
Jens is visiting MSU this year.

Inanc Baykur received his Ph.D.in 2007 under the direction of R. Fintushel. His first position was Ritt Assistant Professor, Columbia University. Inanc works on 4-dimensional topology and geometry. Inanc is currently a Research Associate Professor at Max Planck Institute in Bonn.

Firat Arikan received his Ph.D. in 2008 under the direction of S. Akbulut. His first position is Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Rochester. Firat works on 3-manifolds and contact topology.

Selahi Durusoy received his Ph.D.in 2008 under the direction of S. Akbulut. His first position is Instructor at Grand Valley State University. Selahi works on 3-and 4-manifold topology and Heegaard Floer homology.

Joerg Enders received his Ph.D.in 2008 under the direction of J. Wolfson. His first position was Postdoctoral Fellow at the Warwick Mathematics Institute. He is currently a postdoc at U. Potsdam. Joerg works on geometric analysis.

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