Rate My Professor Hisham Sati

Hisham Sati is Professor of Mathematics at New York University Abu Dhabi, where he serves as Associate Dean for Student Success and Curricular Affairs and Director of the Center for Quantum and Topological Systems. He also holds the position of Global Network Professor of Mathematics at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University. Sati earned his BS from the American University of Beirut and PhD from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Before joining NYU Abu Dhabi, he was at the University of Pittsburgh, where he supervised four PhD students and taught courses at all levels, from undergraduate to advanced graduate and research topics. His earlier appointments include Gibbs Assistant Professor at Yale University, Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland College Park, and joint Research Associate at the Australian National University and the University of Adelaide. Sati has been awarded grants from the US National Science Foundation and other sources to support his interdisciplinary research on geometric aspects of physical theories. He has served as a visiting researcher at leading institutions worldwide, including CERN in Geneva, MSRI in Berkeley, the Max Planck Institute in Bonn, the Erwin Schrödinger Institute in Vienna, IHES and IHP in Paris, and the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics in Santa Barbara. Additionally, he has co-organized several seminars, journal clubs, and over ten workshops and scientific meetings, and delivered the Adams Memorial Lecture in Topology at the University of Manchester in 2016.

Sati's research focuses on mathematical physics, quantum field theory, differential geometry, algebraic topology, and the geometric and topological aspects of physics. His publications span pure physics to pure mathematics, emphasizing interactions between the two, with physics providing motivation for problems whose solutions reveal new mathematical structures. Notable works include "Embedding AdS black holes in ten and eleven dimensions" (1999), "L∞-Algebra Connections and Applications to String- and Chern-Simons n-Transport" (2009), "Twisted differential string and fivebrane structures" (2012), "Twisted Morava K-theory and E-theory" (2015), "The E8 moduli 3-stack of the C-field in M-theory" (2015), and "Spectral sequences in smooth generalized cohomology" (2017). As director of CQTS, his efforts advance quantum systems protected by topology, holography, and robust quantum computation, encompassing theoretical foundations, hardware, architecture, software, and applications. At NYU Abu Dhabi, he teaches capstone and undergraduate mathematics courses as well as a core course on "Theory of Everything," central to his research.