Curriculum Vitae

Ben Spitz
bespitz@iu.edu
https://benspitz.com

Employment

Indiana University Bloomington (Fall 2025 –)
• Zorn Postdoctoral Research Fellow
University of Virginia (Fall 2024 – Spring 2025)
• Research Associate and Lecturer

Education

UC Los Angeles (2018 – 2024)
• PhD, Mathematics (Awarded Summer 2024)
Advisor: Mike Hill
Advanced to Candidacy Winter 2022
Dissertation: "Generalized Mackey and Tambara Functors"
• MA, Mathematics (Awarded Winter 2021)
UC Santa Barbara (2014 – 2018)
• BS, Mathematics (Awarded Spring 2018)
Capstone Project: "Contravariant Finiteness and Tilting"
Advisor: Birge Huisgen-Zimmermann

Preprints, Publications, etc.

Radicals and Nilpotents in Equivariant Algebra (arXiv)
with David Chan
Submitted
The Formal Context of Saturated Transfer Systems on Finite Abelian Groups (arXiv)
with Seth Bernstein
Submitted
Inverting Integers in Tambara Functors (arXiv)
To appear in Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society
C_p-Mackey Functors in Macaulay2 (arXiv)
with Thomas Brazelton, David Chan, Benjamin Mudrak, Chase Vogeli, Chenglu Wang, Michael R. Zeng, and Sasha Zotine
Submitted
Formal Concept Analysis and Homotopical Combinatorics (arXiv)
with Scott Balchin
Submitted
The Spectrum of the Burnside Tambara Functor (arXiv)
with Maxine Calle, David Chan, David Mehrle, J.D. Quigley, and Danika Van Niel
International Mathematics Research Notices, Volume 2026, Issue 2, January 2026, https://doi.org/10.1093/imrn/rnaf388
Algebraically Closed Tambara Functors (arXiv)
with Jason Schuchardt and Noah Wisdom
On the Tambara Affine Line (arXiv)
with David Chan, David Mehrle, J.D. Quigley, and Danika Van Niel
To Appear in Advances in Mathematics
Norms of Generalized Mackey and Tambara Functors (arXiv)
SmallCategories (web)

Conference and Seminar Organizing

Non-Departmental

AMTRaK: Hermitian K-Theory
Friday February 28, 2025 @ UVA
co-organized with Maxine Calle and Anish Chedalavada
socAlgTop
Saturday May 11, 2024 @ IPAM
co-organized with Mike Hill, Morgan Opie, and Richard Wong
AMS Special Session: Topics in Equivariant Algebra
Wednesday Jan 3, 2024 @ Joint Mathematics Meetings
co-organized with Christy Hazel and Mike Hill

Departmental

Learning Seminar on Stable Homotopy Theory
Spring Semester 2026 @ IU
co-organized with Sanjana Agarwal and Yun Liu
Algebraic Topology Seminar
Academic Year 2024-2025 @ UVA
co-organized with J.D. Quigley, Brandon Shapiro, and Oliver Wang
Graduate Student Seminar
Quarterly, Fall 2019 - Spring 2024 @ UCLA
Algebraic Topology Participating Seminar: Equivariant Algebra
Spring Quarter 2023 @ UCLA
Algebraic Topology Participating Seminar: Computations in Equivariant Homotopy Theory
Fall Quarter 2022 @ UCLA
Algebraic Topology Participating Seminar: Condensed Mathematics
Spring Quarter 2022 @ UCLA
"Baby Algebra" Summer Seminar: Algebraic Groups
Summer 2021 @ UCLA
co-organized with Louis Esser

Talks

External

Nakaoka Spectra of Tambara Functors
March 7, 2026
Indiana Joint Topology Seminar
Formal Concept Analysis and Homotopical Combinatorics
October 18, 2025
AMS Fall Sectional Meeting: Special Session on Homotopy Theory
The Tambara Affine Line
April 29, 2025
Isaac Newton Institute Workshop: New horizons for equivariance in homotopy theory
The Tambara Affine Line
February 10, 2025
MIT Topology Seminar
Algebraically Closed Tambara Functors
January 11, 2025
Joint Mathematics Meetings
A Remarkable Homomorphism
January 8, 2025
Joint Mathematics Meetings
The Krein-Milman Theorem
November 14, 2024
University of Kentucky Undergraduate Math Club
The Tambara Affine Line
November 14, 2024
University of Kentucky Topology Seminar
Algebraically Closed Tambara Functors
November 7, 2024
eCHT Research Seminar
Algebraically Closed Tambara Functors
October 26, 2024
Binghamton University Graduate Combinatorics, Algebra, and Topology Conference
Algebraically Closed Tambara Functors
October 16, 2024
Indiana University Topology Seminar
Localizations of Tambara Functors
August 9, 2024
MathFest Contributed Paper Session: Advances in Algebraic Topology
Mackey and Tambara Functors Beyond Equivariant Homotopy
January 23, 2024
CU Boulder Topology Seminar
Generalized Mackey and Tambara Functors
January 6, 2024
AIM Special Session on Equivariant Techniques in Stable Homotopy Theory
Localizations and Spectra of Tambara Functors
January 3, 2024
AMS Special Session: Topics in Equivariant Algebra
Mackey and Tambara Functors Beyond Equivariant Homotopy
December 11, 2023
UNAM Morelia Topology Seminar
Mackey and Tambara Functors Beyond Equivariant Homotopy
November 17, 2023
Vanderbilt University Geometry/Topology Seminar
Mackey and Tambara Functors Beyond Equivariant Homotopy
November 14, 2023
UIUC Topology Seminar
Mackey and Tambara Functors Beyond Equivariant Homotopy
November 2, 2023
OSU Homotopy Seminar
Mackey and Tambara Functors Beyond Equivariant Homotopy
October 4, 2023
University of Minnesota Topology Seminar
Mackey and Tambara Functors Beyond Equivariant Homotopy
September 20, 2023
European Autumn School in Topology
Introduction to Vector Bundles in Algebra and Topology
September 14, 2023
eCHT Seminar: Algebraic Vector Bundles
Day Convolution, Internal Hom, and Green Biset Functors
Two-lecture series
June 20-21, 2023
Topics in Representation Theory: Biset Functors
Mackey and Tambara Functors over LCC Categories
April 3, 2023
UPenn Homotopy Theory Seminar
Mackey and Tambara Functors over LCC Categories
March 16, 2023
Young-HOM
An Invitation to Equivariant Algebra
November 12, 2022
Binghamton University Graduate Combinatorics, Algebra, and Topology Conference

Internal

Homotopy Limits and Colimits
Spring 2026
IU Bloomington Algebraic Topology Learning Seminar on Stable Homotopy Theory
The Spectrum of the Burnside Tambara Functor
Fall 2025
IU Bloomington Topology Seminar
Classification of Topological Vector Bundles
Two-lecture series
Fall 2024
UVA Learning Seminar on Motivic Homotopy Theory
Frontiers in Equivariant Algebra
Fall 2024
UVA Algebraic Topology Seminar
Using Combinatorics to Compute Cohomology
Spring 2024
UCLA Graduate Student Seminar
Assemblers and Scissors Congruence
Winter 2024
UCLA Algebraic Topology Participating Seminar: K-Theory
Write Your Own Neural Net
Winter 2024
UCLA Graduate Student Seminar
Epimorphism Classes and the Adams Spectral Sequences
Fall 2023
UCLA Algebraic Topology Participating Seminar: Spectral Sequences
The Unramified Langlands Correspondence for Function Fields
Fall 2023
UCLA Algebra Participating Seminar: Geometric Langlands
Weird Dice and an Open Problem in Number Theory
Fall 2023
UCLA Graduate Student Seminar
The Quartic Formula
Spring 2023
UCLA Graduate Student Seminar
Universal Properties and (Co)cones
Spring 2023
UCLA Algebra Participating Seminar: ∞-Category Theory
Comma Infinity Categories
Spring 2023
UCLA Algebra Participating Seminar: ∞-Category Theory
Dynkin Around
Winter 2023
UCLA Graduate Student Seminar
A tropical proof of the Brill-Noether Theorem
Fall 2022
UCLA Algebra Participating Seminar: Tropical Geometry
Prime-Generating Polynomials
Fall 2022
UCLA Graduate Student Seminar
The Balmer Spectrum and tt-Classification
Spring 2022
UCLA Algebra Participating Seminar: Tensor Triangular Geometry
Condensed Mathematics
4 Lectures
Spring 2022
UCLA Algebraic Topology Participating Seminar: Condensed Mathematics
Compact Hausdorff Spaces are Algebraic Objects
Spring 2022
UCLA Graduate Student Seminar
∞-Operads
Winter 2022
UCLA Algebraic Topology Participating Seminar: Higher Algebra
Topoi: What's the Topoint?
Winter 2022
UCLA Graduate Student Seminar
Unstable Motivic Homotopy II
Fall 2021
UCLA Algebraic Topology Participating Seminar: Motivic Homotopy Theory
Categorification: Polynomial Edition
Spring 2021
UCLA Graduate Student Seminar
Babby's First Spectral Graph Theory
Winter 2021
UCLA Graduate Student Seminar
Hilbert's theorem on finite generation of rings of invariants
Fall 2020
UCLA Algebra Participating Seminar: Geometric Invariant Theory
Automorphism Towers of Groups
Spring 2020
UCLA Graduate Student Seminar
Perverse Sheaves I
Winter 2020
UCLA Algebra Participating Seminar: Perverse Sheaves
Amazing Adjoints and Where To Find Them
Winter 2020
UCLA Graduate Student Seminar
Birational maps of surfaces
Fall 2019
UCLA Algebra Participating Seminar: Surfaces
Galois Categories
Fall 2019
UCLA Graduate Student Seminar
Grothendieck Topologies and Sheaves
Fall 2019
UCLA "Baby Algebra" Seminar on Étale Cohomology
Selected Tidbits of Statistical Group Theory
Spring 2019
UCLA Graduate Student Seminar
The Krein-Milman Theorem and Slick Applications Thereof
Winter 2019
UCLA Graduate Student Seminar
Čech Cohomology
Summer 2019
UCLA "Baby Algebra" Summer Seminar on Sheaf Cohomology
Contravariant Finiteness and The Finitistic Dimension Conjecture
Two-lecture series
Spring Quarter 2018
UCSB Algebra Seminar

Teaching

IU Bloomington
- Instructor for Math M343: Ordinary Differential Equations
  Spring Semester 2026
- Instructor for Math M211: Calculus 1
  Fall Semester 2025
UVA
- Instructor for Math 3351: Elementary Linear Algebra
  Spring Semester 2025
- Instructor for Math 2310: Calculus 3
  Fall Semester 2024
UCLA
- Instructor for Math 106: History of Mathematics
  Winter Quarter 2023
- Instructor for Math 95: Transition to Upper Division Mathematics
  Fall Quarter 2023
- Teaching Assistant for 22 courses
  2018-2024
  Complete history: https://benspitz.com/teaching.html

Teaching evaluations available upon request.

Service & Mentoring

Referee
2 articles
Graduate Student Website Workshop @ UVA
Spring 2025
co-organized with Sarah Blackwell and Ryan Stees
Editorial Board MathBases.org
2023 –
Undergraduate Studies Committee @ UCLA
Academic Year 2023-2024
Directed Reading Program @ UVA
- Seth Bernstein – Homotopical Combinatorics
  Spring Semester 2025
- Chongshan Lin – Spectral Graph Theory
  Fall Semester 2024
Directed Reading Program @ UCLA
- Conor O'Quigley – Representation Theory of Finite Groups
  Spring Quarter 2024
- Cathleen Qiao – Group Theory
  Spring Quarter 2024
- Bockman Cheung – K-Theory
  Winter Quarter 2024
- Jiantong Liu and Zayan Shariff – Category Theory
  Spring Quarter 2022
- Jiantong Liu – Covering Spaces
  Fall Quarter 2022
- Jiantong Liu – Class Groups of Number Fields
  Spring Quarter 2022
- Jesse Chien – Homological Algebra
  Spring Quarter 2021
- Runze Yu – Representations of Finite Groups
  Spring Quarter 2021
- Runze Yu and Young He – Differential Topology
  Winter Quarter 2021
- Runze Yu and Young He – Universal Algebra
  Fall Quarter 2020