Discrete Mathematics

Hearty congratulations to Darcy Best who submitted his PhD thesis on 28 Mar. His thesis is on transversals of Latin squares and related objects, (supervised by Ian Wanless)

Hearty congratulations to Daniel Horsley, who has been awarded the 2017 Hall medal by the Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications.

The Hall medal recognizes extensive quality research with substantial international impact by Fellows of the ICA in mid-career. Information about the ICA medals can be found at: http://luca-giuzzi.unibs.it/ICA/medals.php

Ian Wanless’ television career is burgeoning. Tonight he is in action on The Chase.

Monash PhD student Harald Bögeholz won the inaugural Anne Penfold Street Student Prize, for the best student talk at the conference 5ICC.

Harald’s presentation was entitled “Calculating Connected Components in Huge Graphs by Randomised Contraction”. Warm congratulations to Harald.

Monash hosted the 5th International Combinatorics Conference from 3-9 December 2017. It was attended by 163 mathematicians and students from Australia, Canada, China, Croatia, Czechia, Germany, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Japan, Malta, New Zealand, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States and Vietnam (fully justifying the name of the conference!). There were 124 talks, 2 excursions, a public lecture and a memorable dinner.

Congratulations to Nick Wormald who will be an invited speaker in the Combinatorics section of the 2018 International Congress of Mathematicians.

In today’s ARC grant announcements, Nick Wormald and Anita Liebenau received a Discovery Project. Congratulations Nick and Anita!

Nick Wormald is one of the 21 new fellows elected to the Australian Academy of Science. Congratulations Nick!

The citation: Nicholas Wormald is one of an elite group of mathematicians globally who combine the most advanced probability theory, combinatorics and theoretical computer science to produce deep insights into the nature of random and complex networks. He specialises in random graphs and probabilistic combinatorics, graph theory, enumeration, the analysis of graph algorithms, Steiner trees, the analysis of real-life networks, and other areas in combinatorics, as well as the optimisation of underground mine access networks. Wormald is responsible for an impressive number of major breakthroughs in these areas and many standard methods used today were his invention.

Graham Farr has just had an article
Remembering Bill Tutte: another brilliant codebreaker from World War II
published in The Conversation, timed to coincide with the centenary of Tutte’s birth this Sunday 14th May.

Michael Brand’s novel Valkyries is published today.

“A masterfully crafted tapestry of ideas, plot and characters, interwoven into a daring, expansive and horizon-broadening read. Brand serves up a creation that links myth and science, the human and the universal. The reader is left feeling that the events he relates are simultaneously beyond all imagining and right around the corner. One of the most impressive and thought-provoking books I have ever read.”

— Idan Ben-Barak, author of “Small Wonders: How Microbes Rule our World”