SFU Canada Research Chairs Seminar Series: "How to draw with small number of crossings"
11:30 - 12:30
Rm10900
Dr. Bojan Mohar, Canada Research Chair in Graph Theory
Department of Mathematics, Simon Fraser University
Abstract
The problem of drawing graphs with the number of crossings of edges minimized has many applications. In addition to its mathematical importance, this concept is relevant in the design of integrated circuits, for the aesthetics of data visualization, and has recently found beautiful applications in combinatorial geometry and in number theory. Although the problems about crossing numbers are easily understood, they lead to challenging and notoriously hard mathematical problems. The history of crossing number problems along with the main theoretical milestones will be presented. The talk will conclude with the presentation of some recent advances in this area. The exposition will mostly be accessible for general audience with little or no mathematical background.
About the Speaker
Dr. Bojan Mohar completed his Ph.D. degree in mathematics at the University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia, in 1986. He is a Professor at the Department of Mathematics, University of Ljubljana, and at the Institute of Mathematics, Physics and Mechanics in Ljubljana. He joined Simon Fraser University in 2005 as a Professor and Canada Research Chair in Graph Theory at the Department of Mathematics. Dr. Mohar's connection with Simon Fraser University goes many years back. During 1986 and 1987 he spent 12 months as a post-doctoral fellow at SFU. Throughout his successful career he has been a Fulbright Scholar at the Ohio State University (1988) and Visiting Professor at the Institute for Mathematics And its Applications at the University of Minnesota (1992), the Technical University of Denmark(1994), Georgia Institute of Technology (1996/97), Technische Universitaet Ilmenau (1998), The Ecole des hautes etudes en sciences sociales, Paris, (2002), and at McGill University (2002). Dr. Mohar's main research interests are: topological graph theory, graph minors, graph colorings, algebraic graph theory, and graph algorithms. Among other scientific activities, Dr. Mohar has published about 200 scientific papers and two monographs, has organized numerous international scientific meetings, and has been a member of editorial boards and reviewer for a number of scientific journals. He has been a plenary speaker at more than 60 international conferences and an invited speaker at many universities around the world. Dr. Mohar has supervised and co-supervised numerous young researchers at various stages in their careers; post-doctoral fellows, graduate, and undergraduate students. Dr. Mohar describes his current research activities at SFU in the following way, "With an extremely strong presence in graph theory in our department, and also in the School of Computing Science, my dreams are coming true."
