Chris Grossack (she/they)

Education and Employment

IPAM at UCLA

Researcher at the semester program on “Quantum Topology, Cluster Varieties, and Low Dimensional Geometry” (Fall 2026)

Montana State University

Postdoctoral Researcher (2026–present) with David Ayala, Ryan Grady, and Sam Gunningham

UC Riverside

Mathematics PhD Student (2020-2026) with Peter Samuelson

Carnegie Mellon University

B.S. in Discrete Math and Logic (May 2019)

• Honors in Computer Science
• Minor in Music

Papers and Preprints

• Explicitly Computing with Fukaya Categories of Surfaces with Boundary preprint
• Life in Johnstone’s Topological Topos (in preparation)
• Descent for 2-Rigs, With Application to the Recognition of Linear Theories (in preparation)
• A Descent Theorem for Right Angled Artin Groups (Accepted to AGT. preprint)
• Extensions of Abelian Automata Groups (preprint)
• Modal Logic, A Rigorous and Practical Introduction (lecture notes from Adam Bjorndahl’s class which were going to become a book until the project ran out of steam. Available here)

Outreach and Service

• Co-Organizer for Geometric Correspondences in the Desert with Shane Rankin (2026)
  • A conference by-and-for PhD students interested in learning Nonabelian Hodge Theory
• Vernon A Kramer Memorial Service Award Recipient (2025)
  • Christina Grossack stands out for helping shape the culture of the department through her: mentorship; advocacy; and vibrant, welcoming personality. She is appreciated both within and outside the department for her mentoring in the Building Bridges to the Professoriate program, her advocacy as a founding member of UCR’s chapter of Spectra, her advice as a panelist on the Choosing a PhD Advisor Panel, her volunteering at Preview Day, and for sharing her passion for mathematics through discussions with peers and via her blog.

• DOI and Metadata Maintainer at Theory and Applications of Categories (2024–ongoing)

• BB2P Mentor (2024)

• Artistic Expression of Original Research participant (2024)
  • The Artistic Expression of Original Research art exhibition exemplifies the incredible work produced from blending the humanities and sciences. Graduate students translate science into art to communicate science in a new way and how it might be meaningful to our communities. Part of the national Being Human Festival, supported by the National Humanities Center, Center for Ideas and Society, and the Gluck Fellows Program of the Arts at UCR

• President of UCR AMS Chapter (2024–2026)

• Category Theory Zulip Moderator (2024–ongoing)

• Founding member and organizer of UCR Spectra Chapter (2023–2026)

• Vice President of UCR AMS Chapter (2023)

• HoTTEST Summer School (TA and Unofficial Organizer, 2022)
  • Stated goal is “to make homotopy type theory accessible to, and inclusive of, everyone who is interested, regardless of cultural background, age, ability, formal education, ethnicity, gender identity, or expression.”

• SUBGroups (Group Leader and Mentor, 2022)

• Math Graduate Student Union Representative (2021–2022)

• SciComm@UCR (2021)
  • “A student organization working to communicate science in creative ways”
• Math/Music Event (Lead Organizer and Composer, 2020, cancelled due to covid)
  • An interdisciplinary event where composers with a math/computer science background would perform work relating to mathematics, and give a short talk on the mathematics that went into their piece.

• Academic Review Board and University Disciplinary Committee (Board Member, 2017-2019)

• Frequently in the top 0.1% of users on math.stackexchange

Seminars Organized

• IPAM Junior Seminar (2026)

• Bott Periodicity Seminar (2026, MSU)

• Perverse Sheaves and Canonical Bases Seminar (2026, UCR)

• DG-Category Seminar (2024, UCR)

• Graduate Student Seminar (2024–2026, UCR)

• HoTT Seminar (2023, UCR)

• Fukaya Categories and Mirror Symmetry (2023, UCR)

  • co-organized by me and Catherine Cannizzo

Talks Given

• Introduction to Character Varieties and the Riemann-Hilbert Correspondence (Geometric Correspondences in the Desert, 2026)
• Skein Relations in the Hall Algebra of the Fukaya Category of a Surface (JMM WisCons, 2026)
• How to Compute with Derived Categories by Doodling (Seminar Talk at MSU, 2025)
• How to Compute with Derived Categories by Doodling (QTMART at Bonn, 2025)
• Explicitly Computing with Fukaya Categories of Surfaces (AWM WiSCons, 2025)
• Life in Johnstone’s Topological Topos (CT Octoberfest, 2024)
• Gluing is Hard: Skeins and Hall Algebras (Centre for Quantum Mathematics at Syddansk, 2024)
• What is Factorization Homology? (AMS Special Session, 2024)
• 2-Categorical Descent and (Essentially) Algebraic Theories (CT Octoberfest, 2023)
• The Univalence Axiom (University of Florida, 2021)
• Categories, Modalities, and Type Theories: Oh My! (HoTT Workshop, 2021)
• Syntax and Semantics (Trans Math Day, 2020)

Teaching Experience

• Teaching Assistant At HoTTEST Summer 2022

• Primary Instructor (UCR)
  • Math-194: reading course on lawvere duality (Spring 2023)
  • Math-194: reading course on locales and category theory (Spring 2022)
• Co-Primary Instructor (CMU)
  • 98-317: Hype For Types (Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Spring 2019)

Research/Reading/Coursework

Conferences Attended

• IPAM Session on Quantum Topology, Character Varieties, and Low Dimensional Geometry
• WiSCon Collaboration Workshop 2026 (Summer 2026)
• Geometric Correspondences in the Desert (Spring 2026)
• Moab Topology Conference (Spring 2026)
• JMM (Winter 2026)
• Fall School on Quantizations and Lagrangians (Summer 2025)
• Queer and Trans Mathematicians in Algebra and Representation Theory (Summer 2025)
• CT2025 (Summer 2025)
• SLMath Noncommutative Algebraic Geometry Summer School (Summer 2025)
• AWM Special Session: WiSCons (Spring 2025)
• Symplectothon on Global Kuranishi Charts (Fall 2024)
• CT Octoberfext 2024 (Fall 2024)
• AMS Special Session: Category Theory and Homotopy Theory in Interaction (Spring 2024)
• Higher Segal Spaces and their Applications (Winter 2024)
• CT Octoberfest 2023 (Fall 2023)
• Representation Theory, Noncommutative Algebra, and Categorification (Summer 2023)
• CT2023 (Summer 2023)
• HoTT 2023 (Spring 2023)
• Workshop on Geoemtric Group Theory (Spring 2023)
• ASL Annual Meeting (Spring 2023)
• JMM (Winter 2023)
• BLAST (Summer 2022)
• HoTTEST Colloquia (Summer 2022)
• WAGS (Spring 2022)