Catherine Eva Pfaff, PhD
Current Status
I am a Research Staff Member at a nonprofit research institute in Princeton, NJ.
Most recently, I was a l'Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques Invited Researcher (Paris, France) April-May 2026, an Institute for Advanced Study Member (Princeton, NJ) September 2024 - July 2025, and a Queen's University Assistant Professor of Mathematics.
Contact
Email: catherine.pfaff@gmail.com
Research Highlights
About
I'm an American from a small town (primarily established by my grandfather) in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. I am also a Canadian permanent resident.
A strong thread in my research is geodesics (length-minimizing paths) in the parameter space of metric groups (Culler-Vogtmann Outer space) and their connections to counting problems in the outer automorphism group of the free group. I also work with metric surfaces and their parameter space.
Of particular current interest is connections between metric graphs, metric surfaces, symbolic dynamics, theoretical physics, and computer science. Beyond this, I like applications of topological/geometric group theoretic ways of thinking to other fields, including soccer analytics.
Education & Background
I earned my PhD from Rutgers University (New Brunswick) under the advisement of Lee Mosher. I spent three years living in Europe ( Barcelona, Spain; Marseille, France; and Bielefeld, Germany). I was an undergraduate student at the University of Chicago.