University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignDepartment of Mathematics
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Combinatorics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Faculty with interests in discrete mathematics

Mathematics Dept: Zoltán Füredi (z-furedi @ math.uiuc.edu), Alexandr Kostochka (kostochk @ math.uiuc.edu), Douglas West (west @ math.uiuc.edu), József Balogh (jobal @ math.uiuc.edu), Sujith Vijay (post-doc), Paul Weichsel (emeritus), (weichsel @ math.uiuc.edu). Others with related interests include Bruce Reznick (reznick @ math.uiuc.edu), Paul Schupp (schupp @ math.uiuc.edu).
Computer Sci. Dept: Chandra Chekuri, Jeff Erickson, Sariel Har-Peled, Sheldon Jacobson, Lenny Pitt, and Manoj Prabhakaran.
Electrical & Computer Eng. Dept: Richard Blahut, Donna Brown, Bruce Hajek, Ralf Koetter, Michael Loui, Dilip Sarwate, and the Applied Computation Theory Group.

Sigma Optimization Group: (affiliated with numerous departments) Nikolaos V. Sahinidis.
Business Administration Dept: Charles Blair.

Activities

Often we have a working group on research problems. Each summer since 2004 this has taken the form of a REGS group (Research Experiences for Graduate Students) supported initially by our department's VIGRE grant and more recently by other funding.

We have a weekly combinatorics seminar (or see math dept. seminar schedule). Also seminars in theoretical computer science in the Computer Science Department often discuss topics in discrete mathematics.

We organize trips for faculty and students to regional meetings such as MIGHTY (MIdwest GrapH TheorY), MCCCC (Midwest Conference on Combinatorics, Coding, and Cryptography), the Cumberland Conference (on Graph Theory, Combinatorics, and Computing), and special sessions in graph theory or combinatorics at nearby regional AMS meetings.

Courses

These are Mathematics Department course numbers; some of these courses are also cross-listed under Computer Science numbers. (Unfortunately, the University has changed its system of catalog description pages in a way that requires updating links each semester. Therefore, we only direct you to the UI main course page and let you click on from there to find the official catalog announcements. The "course announcement" links here point to more complete descriptions of the most recent offerings of the courses.)

We have a one-semester introduction to combinatorics at the graduate level. This course is suitable for students in other areas seeking an overview of the fundamentals of the area and for students preparing to study more advanced courses in combinatorics.

We rotate several regular graduate courses. These assume some experience in combinatorics. (Normally, each year we offer one of {581,582} and one of {583,584} and perhaps an optimization course.) Occasional special topics courses:
  • Topics in Combinatorics (Math 595 - Now a single course number for all topics courses) Recent offerings have included Probabilistic Methods, Algebraic Methods, Coloring Problems for Graphs and Hypergraphs, and Problems in Combinatorial Geometry.

Undergraduate/graduate courses:

Present graduate students in combinatorics

Photo: most of the UIUC contingent at the SIAM Discrete Mathematics meeting in Victoria, Canada, in June 2006.
  • Jeong-Ok Choi (entered 2000) (jchoi @ math.uiuc.edu)
  • Naeem Sheikh (entered 2000) (nsheikh @ math.uiuc.edu)
  • Burak Stodolsky (entered 2001) (yildiran@hotmail.com)
  • Lale Ozkahya (entered 2003) (ozkahya @ math.uiuc.edu)
  • Reza Zamani (entered CS dept 2003) (zamani @ uiuc.edu)
  • Michael Barrus (entered 2004) (mbarrus2 @ math.uiuc.edu)
  • Ida Svejdarova (entered 2004) (isvejda2 @ math.uiuc.edu)
  • Mohit Kumbhat (entered 2004) (kumbhat2 @ math.uiuc.edu)
  • Paul Wenger (entered 2004) (pwenger2 @ math.uiuc.edu)
  • Chris Stocker (entered 2004) (stocker2 @ math.uiuc.edu)
  • Younjin Kim (entered 2004) (ykim36 @ math.uiuc.edu)
  • Noah Prince (entered 2005) (nprince @ math.uiuc.edu)
  • Timothy LeSaulnier (entered 2005) (tlesaul2 @ math.uiuc.edu)
  • Suil O (entered 2005) (suilo2 @ math.uiuc.edu)
  • Hehui Wu (entered 2005Dec) (hehuiwu2 @ math.uiuc.edu)
  • Jane Butterfield (entered 2006) (jbutter2 @ math.uiuc.edu)
  • Fang-Kai Jao (entered 2006) (fjao2 @ math.uiuc.edu)
  • John Lenz (entered 2006) (jlenz2 @ math.uiuc.edu)
  • Kevin Milans (entered 2007 from CS) (milans @ uiuc.edu)
  • Bill Kinnersley (entered 2007 from CS) (wkinner2 @ uiuc.edu)
  • Wojciech Samotij (entered 2007) (samotij2 @ uiuc.edu)

    • Past graduates (with year and Ph.D. advisor)

    Photo: includes six of our recent students (with names) at an IMA program at Georgia Tech in 2003.
    • Jennifer Vandenbussche (2008, West) (jarobin1 @ math.uiuc.edu)
    • Qi Liu (2007, West) (qiliu @ wharton . upenn . edu)
    • Daniel Cranston (2007, West) (cranston @ math.uiuc.edu)
    • Gexin Yu (2006, Kostochka) (gexinyu @ math.uiuc.edu)
    • Weiting Cao (2006, West) (wcao1 @ math.uiuc.edu)
    • Hemanshu Kaul (2006, West/Jacobson) (hkaul @ math.uiuc.edu)
    • Kyung-Won Hwang (2005, Furedi) (khwang7 @ kookmin.ac.kr)
    • Kittikorn Nakprasit (2004, Kostochka) (nakprasi @ math)
    • Jeong-Hyun Kang (2004, Furedi) (j-kang5 @ math.uiuc.edu)
    • Seog-Jin Kim (2003, West) (skim12 @ math.uiuc.edu)
    • Michael Pelsmajer (2002, West) (pelsmajer @ iit.edu)
    • Radhika Ramamurthi (2001, West) (rramamu @ csusm.edu)
    • Tao Jiang (2000, West) (jiangt @ muohio.edu)
    • Ya-Chen Chen (1999, Furedi) (cchen @ math.la.asu.edu)
    • Andre Kundgen (1999, Furedi) (akundgen @ csusm.edu)
    • Maria Axenovich (1999, Furedi) (axenovic @math.iastate.edu)
    • Dhruv Mubayi (1998, West) (mubayi @ math.uic.edu)
    • Chris Hartman (1997, West) (hartman @ uafcs.alaska.edu)
    • Glenn Chappell (1996, West) (ffggc @ uaf.edu)
    • Yi-Wu Chang (1994, West) (chang @ math.nccu.edu.tw)
    • Janice Malouf (1994, Furedi)
    • Myung S. Chung (1993, West)
    • In-Jen Lin (1993, West) (ijlin @ cs.ntou.edu.tw)
    • Todd G. Will (1993, West) (will.todd @ uwlax.edu)
    • John George (1991, Weichsel) (John.George @ enmu.edu)
    • Hunter Snevily (1991, West) (snevily @ uidaho.edu)
    • Robin S. Sanders (1990, Weichsel) (sanders @ math.buffalostate.edu)
    • Andre E. Kezdy (1990, West) (kezdy @ louisville.edu)
    • Thomas M. Kratzke (1988, West) (kratzke @ ilog.com)
    • Margaret L. Weaver (1988, West) (cfmlw1 @ eiu.edu)
    • J. Scott Sportsman (1987, Weichsel) (scott_sportsman @ mail.msj.edu)
    • Robert A. Beezer (1984, Weichsel) (beezer @ ups.edu)
    • Paul M. Terwilliger (1982, Weichsel) (terwilli @ math.wisc.edu)

    History of Visitors

    Long-Term Visitors
    • Oleg Borodin (Novosibirsk), 1/05-5/05
    • Peter Hamburger (IU-PU Fort Wayne), 8/03-5/04
    • Dmitry Fon-Der-Flaass (Novosibirsk), 1/03-5/03
    • Vitaly Voloshin (Moldova), 2/02-5/02
    • Nikolai Kuzjurin (Russian Academy of Science, Moscow), 8/01-12/01
    • Dmitry Fon-Der-Flaass (Novosibirsk), 8/00-5/01
    • Jian Shen (Queen's U., U So. Texas), 1/00-6/00
    • Yoshiyasu Ishigami (Tokyo), 8/99-3/01
    • Vitaly Voloshin (Moldova), 2/98-8/98
    • James Haglund, 8/95-5/97
    • Joseph Zaks (Israel), 1/96-5/96
    • Xiaoyun Lu, 8/92-8/94
    • Gyula Katona (Hungarian Academy, Budapest), 1/93-5/93
    • Malay Sen (North Bengal U, India), 8/88-7/89
    Post-Doctoral Faculty
    • Stephen Hartke (Rutgers), 8/04-5/07
    • Jozef Skokan (Emory), 8/00-5/03
    • Tibor Szabo (Ohio St.), 8/97-5/00
    Short-Term Visitors (with lecture dates)
    Dates of seminar talks (talks in other weeks by local speakers or long-term visitors)

    2006-2007

    • Gelasio Salazar (U. San Luis Postosi), 10/03/06

    2005-2006

    • Mikhail Stiebitz (TU Ilmenau), 4/18/06
    • Daniel Kral (Charles U. and Georgia Tech), 3/07/06
    • Tian He (Illinois Wesleyan U.), 2/21/06
    • Michael Plummer (Vanderbilt U.), 2/07/06
    • Ryan Martin (Iowa State U.), 1/24/06
    • Imre Barany (Renyi Institute and University College London), 9/06/05

    2004-2005

    • Mark Goldberg (Rensselaer Polytechnic), 4/26/05
    • Carla Savage (North Carolina State, all week), 4/19/05
    • Anthony Hilton (U. Reading), 4/05/05
    • Noah Prince (U. Memphis), 3/08/05
    • Alexander Barvinok (Michigan), 3/03/05
    • Ron Gould (Emory), 2/15/05
    • Jozsef Balogh (Ohio State), 1/28/05
    • Peter Winkler (Dartmouth), 12/13/04
    • Jeno Lehel (U. Memphis), 11/30/04
    • Miklos Simonovits (Hungarian Academy), 11/16/04
    • Joan Hutchinson (Macalester, two-week visit), 11/02/04
    • Stan Wagon (Macalester), 10/28/04
    • Rob Ellis (Texas A&M), 10/26/04
    • Jozsef Balogh (Ohio State), 9/14/04

    2003-2004

    • Norihide Tokushige (Ryukyu U. & Emory U.), 4/27/04
    • Paul Wollan (Georgia Tech.), 4/20/04
    • Michael Stiebitz (Technical U. Ilmenau, Germany, all week), 4/13/04
    • Xuding Zhu (Natl. Sun Yat-Sen U., Taiwan - colloq+sem.), 4/07-09/04
    • Gregory Gutin (Royal Holloway, University of London, England), 4/06/04
    • Vera Sos (Hungarian Academy of Science), 3/30/04
    • Sergey Kitaev, (U. Kentucky), 2/24/04
    • Michal Morayne, (Wroclaw U. Tech., Poland), 2/10/04
    • Sergei Bezrukov (U. Wisconsin - Superior), 12/09/03
    • Oleg Pikhurko (Carnegie Mellon U.), 12/02/03
    • Andrew Blinco (Australia & Illinois State U.), 11/18/03
    • Papa Sissokho (Illinois State U.), 11/04/03
    • Tara Holm (U. California - Berkeley), 10/23/03
    • Imre Barany (Hungarian Academy of Science), 10/21/03
    • Judy Walker (U. Nebraska), 10/17/03
    • Herbert Wilf (U. Penn, Trjzinsky Lectures), 10/13-15/03
    • Andras Gyarfas (Hungarian Academy of Science), 10/13/03
    • Bela Bollobas (U. Memphis, colloquium), 10/02/03

    2002-2003

    • Laszlo Szekely (U. South Carolina), 4/08/03
    • Michael Plantholt (Illinois State U.), 3/18/03
    • Tom Trotter (Georgia Tech - colloq+sem.), 11/05-07/02
    • Yuejian Peng (Indiana State U.), 10/29/02
    • Dhruv Mubayi (U. Illinois - Chicago), 10/15/02
    • Michael Pelsmajer (Illinois Inst. of Technology), 10/08/02
    • Yi Zhao (U. Illinois - Chicago), 9/24/02
    • Jacques Verstraete (Microsoft, later Waterloo), 9/17/02

    2001-2002

    • Sriram Pemmaraju (Iowa State U.), 4/30/02
    • Nancy Eaton (U. Rhode Island), 4/23/02
    • Hal Kierstead (Arizona State U., all week), 4/16/02
    • Michael Albertson (Smith Coll., colloq+sem.), 4/11/02, 4/09/02
    • Akos Seress (Ohio State U.), 4/09/02
    • Michael Stiebitz (Tech. U. Ilmenau, Germany), 4/02/02
    • David Bressoud (Penn State U., colloquium), 3/14/02
    • Vijaya Venkatajalam (Bombay), 3/12/02
    • Noga Alon (Tel Aviv, Coble Lecturer), 3/5-7/02
    • Thomas Boehme (U. North Texas), 2/19/02
    • Benny Sudakov (Princeton U. & IAS), 2/01/02
    • Michael Jacobson (U. Louisville), 1/29/02
    • Rong Luo (West Virginia U., later Middle Tennessee St. U.), 12/04/01
    • Sergei Bezrukov (U. Wisconsin - Superior), 11/13/01
    • Diane Donovan (U. Queensland, Australia), 10/30/01
    • Tomasz Luczak (U. Poznan - Poland, colloquium), 10/11/01
    • Abdollah Khodkar (U. Queensland, Australia), 10/09/01
    • Peter Hamburger (IU-PU Fort Wayne), 10/02/01
    • Benny Sudakov (Princeton U. & IAS), 9/04/01

    2000-2001

    • Bjarne Toft (U So. Denmark/Memphis), 5/1/01
    • Penny Haxell (Waterloo), 4/24/01
    • Heather Gavlas (Illinois State U.) 4/21/01
    • Gyula O.H. Katona (Renyi Inst./Memphis), 4/10/01
    • Michal Karonski (Adam Mickiewicz/Emory), 2/20/01 and 2/22/01
    • Van Vu (Microsoft/UCSD), 2/2/01
    • Yuejian Peng (Emory U.), 11/14/00
    • Attila Sali (Budapest/IPFW), 10/31/00
    • Heather Gavlas (Grand Valley St.), 10/26/00
    • Charles Vanden Eynden (Illinois State U.), 10/10/00
    • Vojtech Rodl, (Emory U.), 9/12/00
    • Lubos Thoma (Carnegie Mellon U.), 9/5/00

    1999-2000

    • Ed Bertram (Hawaii), 5/25/00
    • Endre Szemeredi (Rutgers U.), 5/9/00
    • Fan Chung Graham (U. Calif. - San Diego), 4/24/00 (talk in CS dept)
    • Irina Perepelitsa (U. Illinois - Chicago), 3/21/00
    • Michael Krivelevich (Tel Aviv U.), 2/8/00
    • Alexander Kelmans (RUTCOR & U. Puerto Rico), 11/16/99 and 11/18/99
    • Gabor Tardos (Renyi Institute, Budapest), 11/9/99
    • Sergei Bezrukov (U. Wisconsin - Superior), 10/19/99
    • Narong Punnim (Australia) 10/12/99
    • Hung-Lin Fu (National Chiao-Tung U., Taiwan), 8/31/99

    1998-1999

    • Richard Karp (U. Calif. - Berkeley), 5/4/99
    • Peter Winkler (Lucent Technologies), 3/23/99
    • 25 talks in Graph Theory at AMS Meeting #941, Mar 19-21, 1999.
      • 3/19am: M. Ellingham (Vanderbilt), X. Zha (Middle Tennessee State), J. Hutchinson (Macalester), N. Robertson (Ohio State)
      • 3/19pm: M.S. Jacobson (Louisville), R. Faudree (Memphis), R. Gould (Emory), L. Goddyn (Simon Fraser), L. Thoma (Carnegie Mellon), A. Kostochka (Novosibirsk and Memphis)
      • 3/20am: A.E. Kezdy (Louisville), T.A. Mckee (Wright State), D. Mubayi (Georgia Tech), R. Schelp (Memphis)
      • 3/20pm: H.A. Kierstead (Arizona State), W.T. Trotter (Arizona State), Dimension, M. Krivelevich (Institute for Advanced Study), D. Corneil (Toronto), J. Spinrad (Vanderbilt), Z. Miller (Miami - Ohio))
      • 3/21am: J.R. Griggs (South Carolina), Y. Zhao (Benedict College), G.G. Chappell (Southeast Missouri State), C.A. Hartman (Alaska - Fairbanks), P. Winkler (Lucent Technologies)
    • Saad El-Zanati (Illinois St.), 2/23/99
    • Alexandr Kostocka (Novosibirsk/Memphis), 2/4/99
    • Rade Zivaljevic (Belgrade), 1/21/99

    1997-1998

    • Chris Rodger (Auburn), 4/28/98
    • Daniel Sanders (Princeton), 1/29/98
    • Bruce Reed (Paris), 12/10/97
    • Abdollah Khodkar (Queensland), 10/28/97
    • Darryn Bryant (Queensland), 10/7/97

    1996-1997

    • Gabor Hetyei (MSRI), 1/28/97
    • Mihai Ciucu (MSRI), 12/10/97
    • Xiaoya Zha (Vanderbilt), 11/5/96
    • R. Sritharan (Indiana St.), 10/22/96
    • Imre Barany (Budapest) 10/96 (Coble Lectures)
    • Frank Sottile (MSRI), 10/1/96
    • Noga Alon (Tel Aviv/Inst. Adv. Study), 9/10/96

    Earlier Visiting Speakers

    • 1995-96: Janos Pach, Masato Wakayama
    • 1994-95: Nick Pippenger
    • 1993-94: Danny Chen, Bela Bollobas (Coble Lectures), Italo Dejter,
    • 1992-93: Norihide Tokushige, Shailesh Tipnis, Laszlo Lovasz, Jeong-Han Kim, Jeff Kahn
    • 1991-92: Andrzej Proskurowski, Mike Plantholt, Robert Beezer
    • 1990-91: William Y.C. Chen, Guoli Ding
    • date unknown: Peter Winkler, Kathy O'Hara, Doron Zeilberger, Herb Wilf, George Anderson
    Department of Mathematics
    273 Altgeld Hall, MC-382
    1409 W. Green Street, Urbana, IL 61801 USA
    Telephone: (217) 333-3350    Fax: (217) 333-9576     Email: office@math.uiuc.edu