Bio


For a bio, please see my homepage: http://math.stanford.edu/~vakil/

Academic Appointments


  • Professor, Mathematics

Administrative Appointments


  • multiple, multiple (see my homepage http://math.stanford.edu/~vakil/ for more information) (2001 - Present)

Boards, Advisory Committees, Professional Organizations


  • multiple, multiple (see my homepage http://math.stanford.edu/~vakil/ for details) (2015 - Present)

Current Research and Scholarly Interests


Algebraic geometry and related subjects. For a complete publication list, see my publication page http://math.stanford.edu/~vakil/preprints.html rather than the list here.

2024-25 Courses


Stanford Advisees


  • Doctoral Dissertation Advisor (AC)
    Ben Church, Spencer Dembner, Hikari Iwasaki

All Publications


  • Low-degree Hurwitz stacks in the Grothendieck ring COMPOSITIO MATHEMATICA Landesman, A., Vakil, R., Wood, M. 2024; 160 (8)
  • NUMERICAL SCHUBERT CALCULUS VIA THE LITTLEWOOD-RICHARDSON HOMOTOPY ALGORITHM MATHEMATICS OF COMPUTATION Leykin, A., del Campo, A., Sottile, F., Vakil, R., Verschelde, J. 2021; 90 (329): 1407–33

    View details for DOI 10.1090/mcom/3579

    View details for Web of Science ID 000631281700014

  • MOTIVIC HILBERT ZETA FUNCTIONS OF CURVES ARE RATIONAL JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF MATHEMATICS OF JUSSIEU Bejleri, D., Ranganathan, D., Vakil, R. 2020; 19 (3): 947–64
  • DISCRIMINANTS IN THE GROTHENDIECK RING (vol 164, pg 1139, 2015) DUKE MATHEMATICAL JOURNAL Vakil, R., Wood, M. 2020; 169 (4): 799–800
  • Formal pseudodifferential operators and Witten's r-spin numbers JOURNAL FUR DIE REINE UND ANGEWANDTE MATHEMATIK Liu, K., Vakil, R., Xu, H. 2017; 728: 1–33
  • REUs with Limited Faculty Involvement, "Underrepresented" Subjects in the Undergraduate Curriculum, and the Culture of Mathematics Rubinstein, Y. A., Vakil, R., Peterson, M. A., Rubinstein, Y. A. WORLD SCIENTIFIC PUBL CO PTE LTD. 2016: 53–72
  • DISCRIMINANTS IN THE GROTHENDIECK RING DUKE MATHEMATICAL JOURNAL Vakil, R., Wood, M. M. 2015; 164 (6): 1139-1185
  • The Chow ring of the moduli space of curves of genus six ALGEBRAIC GEOMETRY Penev, N., Vakil, R. 2015; 2 (1): 123–36
  • Mnev-Sturmfels universality for schemes A celebration of algebraic geometry Lee, S., Vakil, R. American Mathematical Society. 2013: 457-468
  • Algebraic geometry and the ongoing unification of mathematics European Mathematics Society Newsletter Vakil, R. 2013; 89: 24-30
  • The geometry of eight points in projective space: representation theory, Lie theory and dualities PROCEEDINGS OF THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY Howard, B., Millson, J., Snowden, A., Vakil, R. 2012; 105: 1215-1244
  • THE IDEAL OF RELATIONS FOR THE RING OF INVARIANTS OF n POINTS ON THE LINE: INTEGRALITY RESULTS COMMUNICATIONS IN ALGEBRA Howard, B., Millson, J., Snowden, A., Vakil, R. 2012; 40 (10): 3884-3902
  • The ideal of relations for the ring of invariants of n points on the line JOURNAL OF THE EUROPEAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY Howard, B., Millson, J., Snowden, A., Vakil, R. 2012; 14 (1): 1-60

    View details for DOI 10.4171/JEMS/295

    View details for Web of Science ID 000300201000001

  • The Moduli Space of Curves, Double Hurwitz Numbers, and Faber's Intersection Number Conjecture ANNALS OF COMBINATORICS Goulden, I. P., Jackson, D. M., Vakil, R. 2011; 15 (3): 381-436
  • The Mathematics of Doodling AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL MONTHLY Vakil, R. 2011; 118 (2): 116-129
  • Universal covering spaces and fundamental groups in algebraic geometry as schemes JOURNAL DE THEORIE DES NOMBRES DE BORDEAUX Vakil, R., Wickelgren, K. 2011; 23 (2): 489-526
  • Solving Schubert problems with Littlewood-Richardson homotopies International Symposium on Symbolic and Algebraic C omputation Sottile, F., Vakil, R., Verschelde, J. 2010: 179-186
  • MathOverflow Notices of the American Mathematical Society Geraschenko, A., Morrison, S., Vakil, R. 2010: 701
  • A short proof of the lambda(g)-conjecture without Gromov-Witten theory: Hurwitz theory and the moduli of curves JOURNAL FUR DIE REINE UND ANGEWANDTE MATHEMATIK Goulden, I. P., Jackson, D. M., Vakil, R. 2009; 637: 175-191
  • pi(p), the Value of pi in l(p) AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL MONTHLY Keller, J. B., Vakil, R. 2009; 116 (10): 931-935
  • The relations among invariants of points on the projective line COMPTES RENDUS MATHEMATIQUE Howard, B., Millson, J., Snowden, A., Vakil, R. 2009; 347 (19-20): 1177-1182
  • THE EQUATIONS FOR THE MODULI SPACE OF n POINTS ON THE LINE DUKE MATHEMATICAL JOURNAL Howard, B., Millson, J., Snowden, A., Vakil, R. 2009; 146 (2): 175-226
  • Geometric positivity in the cohomology of homogeneous spaces and generalized Schubert calculus AMS Summer Research Institute on Algebraic Geometry Coskun, I., Vakil, R. AMER MATHEMATICAL SOC. 2009: 77–124
  • Algebraic structures on the topology of moduli spaces of curves and maps Geometry of Riemann surfaces and their moduli spaces Vakil, R., Lee, Y. International Press. 2009: 197-216
  • A description of the outer automorphism of S-6, and the invariants of six points in projective space JOURNAL OF COMBINATORIAL THEORY SERIES A Howard, B., Millson, J., Snowden, A., Vakil, R. 2008; 115 (7): 1296-1303
  • The moduli space of curves and Gromov-Witten theory CIME Summer School on Enumerative Invariants in Algebraic Geometry and String Theory Vakil, R. SPRINGER-VERLAG BERLIN. 2008: 143–198
  • A desingularization of the main component of the moduli space of genus-one stable maps into P-n GEOMETRY & TOPOLOGY Vakil, R., Zinger, A. 2008; 12: 1-95
  • Intersections of Schubert varieties and other permutation array schemes Workshop on Algorithms in Algebraic Geometry Billey, S., Vakil, R. SPRINGER. 2008: 21–54
  • A new description of the outer automorphism of S_6, and the invariants of six points in projective space J. Comb. Theory Ser. A Vakil, R., Howard, B., Millson, J., Snowden, A. 2008; 115 (7): 1296-1303
  • Absolute Galois Acts Faithfully on the Components of the Moduli Space of Surfaces: A Belyi-Type Theorem in Higher Dimension INTERNATIONAL MATHEMATICS RESEARCH NOTICES Easton, R. W., Vakil, R. 2007
  • A natural smooth compactification of the space of elliptic curves in projective space ELECTRONIC RESEARCH ANNOUNCEMENTS OF THE AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY Vakil, R., Zinger, A. 2007; 13: 53-59
  • Schubert induction ANNALS OF MATHEMATICS Vakil, R. 2006; 164 (2): 489-512
  • A geometric Littlewood-Richardson rule ANNALS OF MATHEMATICS Vakil, R. 2006; 164 (2): 371-422
  • Murphy's law in algebraic geometry: Badly-behaved deformation spaces INVENTIONES MATHEMATICAE Vakil, R. 2006; 164 (3): 569-590
  • Towards the geometry of double Hurwitz numbers ADVANCES IN MATHEMATICS Goulden, I. P., Jackson, D. M., Vakil, R. 2005; 198 (1): 43-92
  • Relative virtual localization and vanishing of tautological classes on moduli spaces of curves DUKE MATHEMATICAL JOURNAL Graber, T., Vakil, R. 2005; 130 (1): 1-37
  • The affine stratification number and the moduli space of curves CRM Workshop on Algebraic Structures and Moduli Spaces Roth, M., Vakil, R. AMER MATHEMATICAL SOC. 2004: 213–227
  • The moduli space of curves and its tautological ring Notices of the American Mathematical Society Vakil, R. 2003; 50 (6): 647-658
  • Hodge integrals and Hurwitz numbers via virtual localization COMPOSITIO MATHEMATICA Graber, T., Vakil, R. 2003; 135 (1): 25-36
  • The Gromov-Witten potential of a point, Hurwitz numbers, and Hodge integrals PROCEEDINGS OF THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY Goulden, I. P., Jackson, D. M., Vakil, R. 2001; 83: 563-581
  • Twelve points on the projective line, branched covers, and rational elliptic fibrations MATHEMATISCHE ANNALEN Vakil, R. 2001; 320 (1): 33-54

    View details for DOI 10.1007/PL00004469

    View details for Web of Science ID 000169028600003

  • Recursions for characteristic numbers of genus one plane curves ARKIV FOR MATEMATIK Vakil, R. 2001; 39 (1): 157-180

    View details for DOI 10.1007/BF02388797

    View details for Web of Science ID 000174336800009

  • Genus 0 and 1 Hurwitz numbers: Recursions, formulas, and graph-theoretic interpretations TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY Vakil, R. 2001; 353 (10): 4025-4038
  • On the tautological ring of \overline{M}_{g,n} Gokova Geometry-Topology Conference Vakil, R., Graber, T. International Press. 2001
  • A tool for stable reduction of curves on surfaces Advances in Algebraic Geometry Motivated by Mathematical Physics Vakil, R. 2001: 145-154
  • The enumerative geometry of rational and elliptic curves in projective space JOURNAL FUR DIE REINE UND ANGEWANDTE MATHEMATIK Vakil, R. 2000; 529: 101-153
  • Counting curves on rational surfaces MANUSCRIPTA MATHEMATICA Vakil, R. 2000; 102 (1): 53-84
  • The characteristic numbers of quartic plane curves CANADIAN JOURNAL OF MATHEMATICS-JOURNAL CANADIEN DE MATHEMATIQUES Vakil, R. 1999; 51 (5): 1089-1120
  • On the Steenrod length of real projective spaces: finding longest chains in certain directed graphs DISCRETE MATHEMATICS Vakil, R. 1999; 204 (1-3): 415-425
  • On Conway's recursive sequence DISCRETE MATHEMATICS Kubo, T., Vakil, R. 1996; 152 (1-3): 225-252