Lee Mosher, Rutgers University Newark

Abstract: (joint work with J. Behrstock, B. Kleiner, Y. Minsky) Mapping class groups of surfaces are quasi-isometrically rigid, in the very strong sense that any self-quasi-isometry of a surface mapping class group is within bounded distance of left translation by some group element (with a modest exception for the twice punctured torus). We will discuss some of the ideas behind the proof.