Mathematicians from around the world gathered at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) to celebrate the 80th birthday of renowned mathematician Cameron Gordon, whose pioneering work has shaped the field of low-dimensional topology for decades.

Tye Lidman, traveled to the conference with former NC State postdoctoral researcher Juanita Pinzon-Caicedo. 

Cameron Gordon was Tye’s postdoc mentor at UT Austin and had a profound impact not only on the field but also on his own development as a mathematician. It was an honor to be part of this celebration of his life’s work and legacy.

The conference brought together former students, collaborators, and admirers to reflect on Gordon’s influence across generations of topologists. Talks highlighted both historical milestones and ongoing research that traces its roots back to Gordon’s seminal ideas.

Tye also presented at the conference. His presentation, titled “Cosmetic Surgeries and Chern-Simons Invariants,” was about studying knots through Dehn surgery, which is the process of excising a knot from three-dimensional space and gluing it back in with a twist.  This process creates interesting new three-dimensional spaces that topologists are interested in studying.