Ryan Braiden

About

I’m an Australian Honours student interested in algebraic geometry and representation theory. I completed my undergraduate thesis under the supervision of Masoud Kamgarpour in algebraic topology.

Work

• Undergraduate (Honours) thesis: The K(pi, 1) conjecture for Artin braid groups

• Coordinating the UQ Algebraic Geometry Reading Seminar (w/ Lucas Sobolev)

  • Sem1 2026 Journey Towards Algebraic Geometry I: Commutative Algebra (10 participants)
  • Sem2 2026 Journey Towards Algebraic Geometry II: Varieties and Sheaves

Selected talks

• May 2026 The topology and geometry of Artin braid groups, Honours final talk, Brisbane, Australia

• January 2026 (Award recipient, Best Talk) The K(π,1) conjecture, AMSI summer school, Melbourne, Australia

• October 2025 Cluster algebras, coursework, Brisbane, Australia

• October 2025 Classifying spaces and principal G-bundles, coursework, Brisbane, Australia

• March 2025 A rapid introduction to analytic number theory, University of Queensland Mathematics Students Society, Brisbane, Australia

Beyond mathematics

I enjoy constantly learning. Outside of mathematics I enjoy reading history and philosophy (I an currently reading “Cuba: An American History” by Ada Ferrer). I feel a deep responsibility to not only learn about the world around me but to play my part in building a more equitable future.

Some non-academic hobbies of mine include making food for my girlfriend and board gaming.