Ciprian Manolescu

Romanian-American mathematician (b. Dec 24, 1978, Alexandria, Romania) working in low-dimensional topology, symplectic geometry and gauge theory. The only person to have written three perfect papers at the International Mathematical Olympiad (1995-1997) and a three-time Putnam Fellow. Professor of Mathematics at Stanford since 2019, previously Professor at UCLA (2012-2019) and Columbia (2005-2008); PhD Harvard 2004 under Peter B. Kronheimer.

Ciprian Manolescu is a Romanian-American mathematician and professor at Stanford University. He holds one of the strongest competitive mathematics records ever, with three perfect scores at the IMO and three Putnam Fellow placements. His research centers on Floer homology, Seiberg-Witten theory and the topology of manifolds, and he is best known for disproving the triangulation conjecture in high dimensions.

Details

LocationStanford, California, United States

Company sitestanford.edu

UniversityHarvard University

Low-dimensional topologyGauge theorySymplectic geometryFloer homologySeiberg-Witten theoryKhovanov homologyTopologyGeometryMathematical Olympiad training

Notes

Disproved the Triangulation Conjecture for manifolds of dimension 5 and higher (2013), building on Pin(2)-equivariant Seiberg-Witten Floer homology.
Sole person to write three perfect (42/42) papers at the IMO, 1995-1997 in Toronto, Bombay and Mar del Plata.
Consultant (AI for math) at Google DeepMind July 2025 - June 2026, signaling a pivot into applying AI to mathematics.
Plenary speaker at ICM Philadelphia 2026, having previously been invited speaker at ICM Rio 2018.
Three-time Putnam Fellow (top five) in 1997, 1998, 2000, and coaches Stanford's Putnam team since 2019.

Experience

Professor of Mathematics at Stanford University

Jan 2019 - Present

Professor of Mathematics at UCLA

Jan 2012 - Jan 2019

Associate Professor at UCLA

Jan 2008 - Jan 2012

Assistant Professor at Columbia University

Jan 2005 - Jan 2008

Research Fellow at Clay Mathematics Institute

Jan 2004 - Jan 2008

Veblen Research Instructor at Princeton University / IAS

Jan 2004 - Jan 2005

Consultant (AI for math) at Google DeepMind

Jul 2025 - Jun 2026

Education

Harvard University

Jan 2004

PhD in Mathematics, Mathematics

Harvard University

Jan 2001

BA summa cum laude, Mathematics

Ion Bratianu National College

AchievementsSole person with three perfect papers at the International Mathematical Olympiad · Disproved the triangulation conjecture for manifolds of dimension 5 and higher (2013)

Talks

youtube.com/watch

AwardsPlenary speaker, International Congress of Mathematicians, Philadelphia (2026) · Simons Investigator (2020-2030) · AMS E. H. Moore Research Article Prize (2019) · Invited speaker, ICM Rio de Janeiro (2018) · Fellow of the American Mathematical Society (2017) · European Mathematical Society Prize (2012) · Frank and Brennie Morgan Prize (2001) · Putnam Fellow (1997, 1998, 2000) · Three Gold Medals with perfect scores at the IMO (1995, 1996, 1997)

Competition record