Assistant Professor of Mathematics

University of Central Missouri

Biography

Nick Meyer is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at the University of Central Missouri. He did his PhD at the University of Nebraska — Lincoln and was advised by Alex Zupan. Nick’s current interests are primarily in the geometric and algebraic topology of 3- and 4-manifolds. In particular, he studies knot theory in dimensions 3 and 4, Heegaard splittings of 3-manifolds, and trisections of 4-manifolds. In addition, he is interested in the computational aspects of these areas, particularly computational algebraic topology and computational knot theory. A copy of his CV is available here.

Interests
  • Geometric and Algebraic Topology
  • Computational Topology
  • Mathematics Education and Pedagogy
Education

  • PhD in Mathematics

    University of Nebraska, Lincoln

  • MS in Mathematics

    University of Nebraska, Lincoln

  • BS in Mathematics with Honors

    Winona State University

Courses Taught

University of Central Missouri

  • Math 1111 — College Algebra
    • Spring 2025, Instructor x1
  • Math 1151 — Calculus 1
    • Spring 2025, Instructor x1
    • Fall 2024, Instructor x1
  • Math 2410 — Discrete Mathematics
    • Spring 2025, Instructor x1
  • Math 4210/5210 — Topology 1
    • Fall 2024, Instructor x1
  • Math 5211 — Topology 2
    • Spring 2025, Instructor x1

University of Nebraska — Lincoln

  • Math 101 — College Algebra
    • Fall 2019, Instructor x1
  • Math 103 — College Algebra and Trigonometry
    • Fall 2021, Convener and Instructor x1
    • Spring 2022, Convener Only
  • Math 104 — Applied Calculus
    • Summer 2021, Instructor x1
  • Math 107 — Calculus 2
    • Fall 2018, Recitations x2
    • Spring 2019, Recitations x2
    • Summer 2019, Recitations x1
  • Math 203(J) — Contemporary Mathematics
    • Spring 2020, Instructor x1
    • Fall 2020, Instructor x2
    • Spring 2021, Convener and Instructor x1
  • Math 208 – Multivariable Calculus
    • Summer 2022, Course Development
    • Fall 2022, Recitations x5
    • Spring 2023, Instructor x1
    • Fall 2023, Recitatuions x5
    • Spring 2024, Recitations x4

Publications

  • Torus Surgery, Fibrations, Multisections, and Spun 4-Manifolds. PhD Dissertation. ProQuest

  • (with Román Aranda, Sarah Blackwell, Devashi Gulati, Homayun Karimi, Geunyung Kim, and Puttipong Pongtanapaisan) Pants distances of knotted surfaces in $4$-manifolds. Submitted. arXiv

  • (with Wolfgang Allred, Manuel Aragón, Zack Dooley, Alexander Goldman, Yucong Lei, Isaiah Martinez, Devon Peters, Scott Warrander, Ana Wright, and Alex Zupan) Tri-plane diagrams for simple surfaces in $S^4$. Journal of Knot Theory and its Ramifications. https://doi.org/10.1142/S0218216523500414

Selected Talks

$4$-Manifolds Seminar at UNL:

  • November 2019: “Trisections from Morse $2$-Functions”
  • September 2019: “Heegaard-Kirby Diagrams for Trisections of $4$-Manifolds”

Groups, Semigroups, and Topology Seminar at UNL:

  • February 2024: “Heegaard splittings, diagrams, and fundamental groups of 3-manifolds (Group trisections part 1)”
  • March 2023: “Group deficiency from a $4$-manifolds perspective”
  • September 2022: “The Casson-Gordon Signature Invariant and Sliceness Obstructions”
  • April 2022: “Ends of Surfaces and Classification Theorems”
  • February 2022: “A quest for residual finiteness: Geometrization and the word problem for $3$-manifolds”
  • October 2021: “Maps from $3$-manifolds to $4$-manifolds that induce isomorphisms on fundamental groups (Part 2)”
  • October 2020: “Heegaard splittings and Trisections 101: A crash course in manifold decompositions in dimensions three and four”
  • October 2019: “Orderings on $3$-Manifold Groups”

Graduate Students Talking Groups, Semigroups, and Topology Seminar at UNL:

  • September 2022: “An Introduction Sliceness Obstructions”
  • March 2021: “Pants: An Introduction to Oriented Cobordism Theory”
  • September 2019: “An Alexander Polynomial for Knots in Thickened Surfaces”
  • March 2019: “The Extension Problem for Topological Dynamical Systems via Monoid Actions”

Graduate Student Seminar at UNL:

  • April 2021: “Pants: An Introduction to Oriented Cobordism Theory”

Other Seminars and Conferences:

  • October 2023: “Torus Surgeries on the Hopf Surface”, AMS Fall Central Sectional Meeting, Creighton University, Omaha, NE
  • June 2022: “Meier-Zupan Square Links and the Andrews-Curtis Conjecture”, New Developments in Four Dimensions, University of Victoria, Victoria BC
  • June 2021: “A Geometric Introduction to Heegaard Splittings and Trisections”, GOSS (Graduate Online Seminar Series), University of Georgia, Athens, GA