With Joakim: From Seaweed Algebras to Meander Graphs and Polytopes (Part 1)

People I Meet, Stories We Share · Nov 3, 2026 · 37m

I’m so happy and honored to have Joakim Jakovleski as the second guest on my podcast! Joakim is my PhD classmate and friend, and we first met in our Probability Theory class at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. I’m really grateful to have him here to share his research and stories with us.

In Part 1 of our conversation, Joakim introduces us to his research in combinatorics, exploring the connections between seaweed algebras, meander graphs, and polytopes. We talk about how abstract algebraic problems can be studied through graphs, why some counting problems in combinatorics are…