Blog / Announcements

An announcement shares information about events, opportunities, or general updates from the Topos community.

Call for applications: 2-year postdoc in Oxford
Topos
personnel
hiring

We’ve just opened a call for applications for a 2-year (possible extension to 4-year) postdoc position in our Oxford office, working on declarative scientific modelling in the context of ecological systems.

Tim Hosgood
2026-10-05

The 2026 Summer RAs, from left to right: Michael, Matt, Aaron, Bryce, and Khyathi

Our Summer Research Associates in 2026
Topos
personnel

Summer brings a new group of talented Summer Research Associates (RAs) to Topos. As they begin their projects, we invited each of them to share a little about themselves, their interests, and the work they’ll be pursuing.

Molly White
2026-06-26

Call for 2026 Summer Research Associates
hiring
personnel

Come spend the summer at the Topos Institute! For early-career researchers, we’re excited to open up applications for our 2026 Summer Research Associate program.

Kris Brown
2025-11-24

Open position: Director of UK Operations
Topos
hiring

Topos UK is hiring for a Director of Operations. What does this mean? Read more to find out.

Tim Hosgood
2025-10-07

The Summer RAs, from left to right: Ea, Lucy, Matt, Corinthia, Aaron, Tony

Our Summer Research Associates in 2025
Topos
personnel

Another year, another cohort of wonderful Summer Research Associates (RAs) at Topos working on exciting projects. As is now the custom, we’ve asked each of them to introduce themselves and write a little bit about what they’ll be working on over the summer, with more detailed blog posts from each…

Molly White
2025-07-01

Growing the Topos tech team
CatColab
technology
personnel
Mathematics and science achieve their greatest impact when innovative basic research is coupled with translation into robust and usable technology. That is easier said than done. Today, research and development, despite appearing conjoined in the acronym “R&D,” are rarely done together. Research…
Evan Patterson
2025-05-29

Inaugural TopOx seminar
events
micro

Next week we’re co-hosting an in-person seminar talk in Oxford. This post contains the mailing announcement.

Tim Hosgood
2025-05-08

Call for 2025 Summer Research Associates
hiring
personnel

Come spend the summer at the Topos Institute! For early-career researchers, we’re excited to open up applications for our 2025 Summer Research Associate program.

Shaowei Lin
2024-11-12

Introducing CatColab
technology
categorical logic
double categories
Topos
CatColab

Today we’re excited to announce the first pre-alpha release of our new software CatColab 0.1: Hummingbird. CatColab is software for making models of the world together.

Kevin Carlson
2024-10-02

Postdoc job openings in Topos Oxford, UK
hiring
personnel
Topos

Topos is opening its doors in Oxford, UK, and is inviting applications for two postdoctoral researchers to come work with us on one of our first projects.

Tim Hosgood
2024-08-30

The Summer RAs, from left to right: C.B., Keri, and Owen

Our Summer Research Associates in 2024
Topos
personnel

Another year, another cohort of wonderful Summer Research Associates (RAs) at Topos working on exciting projects. As is now the custom, we’ve asked each of them to introduce themselves and write a little bit about what they’ll be working on over the summer. You can expect to see some blog posts…

Tim Hosgood
2024-07-29

Applied Category Theory for Engineering Design: A Teaser Video
outreach
video

Prof Gioele Zardini will be teaching a new course on Applied Category Theory for Engineering Design (ACT4ED) this Fall. Here’s a teaser video outline the key challenges in engineering systems design we aim to address with applied category theory.

Brendan Fong
2024-06-03

Launching new collaboration with Chapman University
Topos

We’ve launched a collaboration with Chapman University to explore joint research projects and expand our role mentoring and teaching the next generation of technologists working in the public interest. Each year, many people reach out to ask how they might pursue doctoral studies with our…

Brendan Fong
2024-05-28

Poly @ Work 2024
events
polynomial functors

Polynomial functors are a prime example of mathematics’ startling capacity to yield deep formal insights and real-world applications from the simplest ingredients. The category of polynomial functors (Poly) offers an abundance of elegant theory linked with computational design patterns that span…

Sophie Libkind, David Spivak
2024-03-27

SCAI — AI for the Global Good
events
LLMs
ethics
video

In December 2023, Topos partnered with the Government of Singapore to host the inaugural Singapore Conference on AI for the Global Good (SCAI). An international, cross-sectoral meeting of leaders, SCAI focussed efforts on AI for the global good through the joint writing of 12 foundational yet…

Brendan Fong
2024-02-02

Mathematics for climate change
applied category theory

John Baez is now helping lead a new Fields Institute program on the mathematics of climate change.

John Baez
2023-11-23

Topos researchers win Best Paper Award at AAAI Fall Symposium 2023
Topos

Congratulations to Angeline Aguinaldo, Evan Patterson, and their collaborators James Fairbanks, William Regli, and Jaime Ruiz at the University of Florida and the University of Maryland, College Park for winning Best Paper Award at the 2023 AAAI Fall Symposium on Unifying Representations for Robot…

Brendan Fong
2023-11-17

Our Summer Research Associates in 2023
Topos
personnel

Topos Institute is proud to have ushered in another cohort of research associates (RAs) this summer! Each early career researcher made a positive impact on both the science and culture at Topos, through which their legacies live on. We hope that the collaboration was reciprocal, empowering them to…

Juliet Szatko
2023-10-09

Welcome Shaowei!

Welcoming our new Director of Research, Shaowei Lin
personnel
Topos

We’re delighted to announce that Shaowei Lin has joined Topos as our new Director of Research.

Brendan Fong
2023-06-22

Singular Learning Theory and Alignment Summit 2023
statistics
events
LLMs

There are surprisingly deep connections between algebraic geometry and statistical learning theory, which have been explored over the past few decades by Sumio Watanabe in Singular Learning Theory. This body of work is highly relevant to the problem of understanding the behaviour of large…

Shaowei Lin
2023-06-17

Category theorists welcome self-learners in a new outreach panel
events
category theory
community
outreach

We are finding that self learning is becoming more and more popular when it comes to learning category theory. In a collaborative effort to assist people in this pursuit, Topos will host a category theory outreach panel moderated by Emily Riehl, and featuring Tai-Danae Bradley, Eugenia Cheng, Paul…

David Spivak, Alexis Anaya
2023-03-09

Picture from aninfinityofhypotheses.wordpress.com

Women in Logic: the history so far
logic
community

This year we’re having the 7th Women in Logic (WiL) Workshop in Rome, associated with FSCD and CADE. Considering that we never had grants to help us defray costs of the workshop, I think getting to our seventh anniversary is a big milestone. Everyone who works for Women in Logic does it for free…

Valeria de Paiva
2023-03-06

Ask Eugenia Cheng about Category Theory!
category theory
events
video

We are excited to announce a book club for The Joy of Abstraction, a new book by Eugenia Cheng. The Joy of Abstraction is a wonderful introduction to category theory for anyone who wants to get into the formality of the subject but does not necessarily have the mathematical background to read…

Brendan Fong
2023-02-09

Research associates from last summer’s program

Research opportunities at Topos in early 2023
hiring
Topos

We invite applications to join Topos Institute as a Research Associate (summer 2023) or as a Research Software Engineer (regular position).

Evan Patterson
2022-12-12

Statement on Topos and the FTX Foundation
Topos

Topos is a community and an organisation that cares deeply about the public interest, and works to make a world of better systems for all. As part of this, we believe accountability and transparency are crucial. This post is to create transparency around our now declined funding relationship with…

Brendan Fong
2022-11-19

JMM Workshop on ACT for teaching and learning
events
applied category theory
community

My name is Ted Theodosopoulos and I am a mathematician working at the Nueva School, an independent school for gifted students in San Mateo, California. It was largely as a result of the encouragement that folks at Topos offered me that I decided to propose a workshop on “ACT as a transformative…

Ted Theodosopoulos
2022-10-14

In celebration of Dana Scott
video
events

The greatest privilege of working at Topos is being part of a community of incredible people. One of these people is Dana Scott. Dana’s research achievements need little introduction: his ideas have changed our understanding of computing and logic, and have been recognised with numerous awards…

Brendan Fong
2022-10-09

Ethics, Technology, and Embracing the 21st Century
ethics
events

Last week our chair Ilyas Khan hosted Lord Rees for a discussion on Ethics, Technology, and Embracing the 21st Century at the Royal Society. The conversation ranged broadly, from the need for public intellectuals; to the limits of science and what we might never know, and the importance of sincere…

Brendan Fong
2022-10-07

What does it take to run a research nonprofit?
hiring
Topos

We’re exploring a new role at Topos: Director of Research. We’d love to hear from or about anyone who might be interested!

Tish Tanski
2022-09-01

Our Summer Research Associates in 2022
Topos
personnel

The Topos Institute is pleased to introduce the 2022 cohort of Summer Research Associates! Each of them brings a unique and meaningful perspective to the Topos team, and we consider ourselves lucky to have the opportunity to engage in this important learning and teaching experience. Education is a…

Juliet Szatko
2022-07-14

Join Topos as a senior leader in finance and operations!
Topos
hiring

Topos is more than just a collection of researchers: we are a community pioneering a new, international, and interdisciplinary tech organisation. We do this in order to help create a future where the systems around us, large and small, allow every member of society to flourish. While our…

Brendan Fong
2022-05-20

2022 Workshop on Polynomial Functors
events
polynomial functors
category theory

This year, Topos sponsored a second workshop on polynomial functors. It consisted of 20 talks, spread out over five days (all of which have been recorded and can be found on our YouTube channel) Like last year, the organizers were myself and my friend and colleague Joachim Kock. Two things made…

David Spivak
2022-03-29

Launch of the Women in Logic website
logic
community

World Logic Day is an international day proclaimed by UNESCO in association with the International Council for Philosophy and Human Sciences (CIPSH) in 2019. The idea is to celebrate it on the 14th of January every year. This year we decided to celebrate Logic Day by launching the Women in Logic…

Valeria de Paiva
2022-03-17

So, what’s the plan?
Topos

Over the past six months, we’ve conducted interviews across the Topos community, and drafted and re-drafted our 2021–2024 strategic plan, so that we can coordinate effectively around a shared strategy as well as a shared vision. We’d like to share that plan with you all today.

Brendan Fong
2022-03-15

Summer RAs and mentors hard at work at the beginning of summer 2021

Call for 2022 Summer Research Associates
hiring
personnel

Come spend the summer at the Topos Institute! For early-career researchers, we’re excited to open up applications for our summer research associate program.

Evan Patterson
2022-03-01

Topos seeks Research Software Engineer
hiring
personnel
video

We invite applications to join the Topos Institute as a Research Software Engineer, to work on software for compositional data integration and scientific modeling in the Julia programming language.

Evan Patterson
2022-02-21

Playing with Shapes at Topos
Topos
personnel

This month sees a new person joining the team here at Topos: we’re thrilled to welcome Brandon Shapiro! He’s working with David Spivak on the theory and applications of polynomial functors. We asked him to write a short blog post introducing both himself and his mathematics.

Brandon Shapiro
2022-02-15

Topos Institute seminars in 2022
events

With a new calendar year comes a new seminar! On the 25th of January, our very own David Spivak will be giving the inaugural talk ("Categorical interaction in the polynomial ecosystem") of the Intercats seminar, and the seminars will then be held every other Tuesday at 17:00 UTC. The Topos…

Tim Hosgood
2022-01-07

The seminar room at Topos Berkeley over the summer, with visitors and more permanent members all gathered together for some productive conversations

Topos in 2021: a retrospective
Topos

As this calendar year draws to a close, I asked the members of Topos to each write a little bit about what they’ve worked on this year, how things have gone, and what plans they might have for the future. Here’s what they wrote!

Tim Hosgood
2021-12-02

We’re looking for a postdoc!
hiring
Topos
personnel

Topos is hiring! We invite applicants for a one-year postdoc position, from November 2021, to work on a project related to dynamical systems and data using the language of polynomial functors.

Brendan Fong
2021-10-08

The cohort of Em-Cats speakers and their talk titles/topics. [PDF]

Announcing Em-Cats
events

The Em-Cats seminar series that was announced a while back is almost about to start! We will be welcoming our first speaker (Jade Master) on Wednesday the 25th of August. Here is some more information about this opening talk.

Tim Hosgood
2021-08-24

Left to right: Sophie Libkind, David Jaz Myers, Nelson Niu, Owen Lynch

Get to know our Summer Research Associates
Topos
personnel

We’re excited to welcome our 2021 summer research associates to our Berkeley campus! This summer we have Sophie Libkind, Owen Lynch, David Jaz Myers, and Nelson Niu joining our work on connected intelligence and model-based scientific computing. They bring new exciting energy and ideas, and we’re…

Brendan Fong, Sophie Libkind, David Jaz Myers, Owen Lynch, Nelson Niu
2021-07-19

Clockwise, from top left: Johan García Vargas, Jade Master, Gun Pinyo, Nuiok Dicaire, Jennifer Brown, Minani Iragi, Juan F. Meleiro; not pictured, Eli Hazel

Seminars and workshops so far
events
Topos

Although this blog has only just launched, the Topos Institute has been running quite a few public-facing events over the past five months or so, including a workshop and regular seminar series. With even more on the horizon, let’s take a look at what has been, and will be, going on.

Tim Hosgood
2021-07-08

Our online celebration of the official Day 1 of Topos Institute, back in January 2021

Welcome to the Topos Blog
Topos

Welcome to the Topos blog! Here you’ll find news and announcements, statements of our visions and projects at Topos, expository articles on topics of interest to the Topos community, and reports of research in progress.

Brendan Fong
2021-06-30
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