Shaoyun Bai

Shaoyun Bai is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics in the Department of Mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he joined the faculty in July 2024. His research focuses on symplectic topology and its interactions with neighboring areas of geometry and topology, including algebraic geometry, algebraic topology, geometric topology, and dynamical systems. He is particularly interested in developing new analytical and topological tools for counting problems arising from moduli spaces, with applications to long-standing questions such as the Arnold conjecture, periodic points of Hamiltonian maps, higher-rank Casson invariants, the enumeration of embedded curves, and the topology of symplectic fibrations. He completed his undergraduate studies at Tsinghua University in 2017 and earned his PhD in Mathematics from Princeton University in 2022 under the supervision of John Pardon. Prior to joining MIT, he held visiting positions as a McDuff Postdoctoral Fellow at MSRI (now SLMath) and at the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics, and served as a Ritt Assistant Professor at Columbia University during the 2023–2024 academic year.