We'll discuss various questions about coloring maps on surfaces. It is well-known that coloring a map on a surface can require more than four colors (with appropriate assumptions, e.g. connectivity of the countries). We'll consider whether a finite map on a surface can admit a 4-coloring in a finite-sheeted cover.
Ian Agol obtained his Ph.D from the University of California, San Diego. He is a professor at the University of California, Berkeley and a former professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is a winner of the Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics, a Clay Research Award, the Veblen Prize in Geometry, and has been a Guggenheim Fellow. He is a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.