Abstract：

I shall discuss my recent work showing that the Bogomolov-Tschinkel universality conjecture holds if and only if the mapping class groups of a punctured surface is large (which is essentially the negation of the Ivanov conjecture about the mapping class groups). I will also discuss my recent work with O. Tosic regarding the closely related Putman-Wieland conjecture.

Prizes and Distinctions

Vladimir Markovic has made fundamental contributions to the theory of three-dimensional manifolds, resolving several long-standing problems, among them the proof of the Thurston conjecture concerning immersed almost-geodesic surfaces in closed hyperbolic three-manifolds.

• Simons Investigator Award, (2016)

• ICM Invited Speaker, Geometry Section and Dynamical Systems Section, ROK (2014)

• Elected Fellow of the Royal Society (2014)

• Research Merit Award, Royal Society (2014)

• Clay Research Award, awarded by Clay Institute (2012)

• Whitehead Prize, awarded by LMS (2004)

• Leverhulme Prize, awarded by Leverhulme Trust (2004)