Ismar Volić

Ismar Volić is a Professor of Mathematics and Director of the Institute for Mathematics and Democracy at Wellesley College, where his work bridges algebraic topology and social choice theory, with a particular focus on the role of mathematics in democratic processes. He earned his B.A. from Boston University and his M.A. and Ph.D. in mathematics from Brown University, and has held visiting positions at institutions including Harvard University, MIT, and the University of Virginia. Born in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, he came to the United States in 1991 for his final year of high school and remained after war broke out in his home country.

Volić is the author of numerous research articles and books and has delivered hundreds of lectures in over twenty countries on topics at the intersection of mathematics and democracy. His book Making Democracy Count: How Mathematics Improves Voting, Electoral Maps, and Representation builds on “The Mathematics of Democracy,” a course he created at Wellesley, and examines how mathematical ideas illuminate issues such as voting systems, gerrymandering, apportionment, and representation; the book received the Mathematical Association of America’s Euler Prize and was a finalist for the PROSE Award of the Association of American Publishers. His research has been supported by organizations including the National Science Foundation, the Simons Foundation, and