Selman Akbulut (born 1949) is a Turkish mathematician, specializing in research in topology, and geometry.
In 1975, he earned his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley as a student of Robion Kirby.
[2] He was a visiting scholar several times at the Institute for Advanced Study (in 1975-76, 1980–81, 2002, and 2005).
[3] On February 14, 2020, Akbulut was removed from his tenured position at MSU by the Board of Trustees, after disputes over his teaching allotments and communications with colleagues.
[9][10][11] He constructed an exotic compact 4-manifold (with boundary) from which he discovered "Akbulut corks".