The C&O department has 36 faculty members and 60 graduate students. We are intensely research oriented and hold a strong international reputation in each of our six major areas:
- Algebraic combinatorics
- Combinatorial optimization
- Continuous optimization
- Cryptography
- Graph theory
- Quantum computing
Read more about the department's research to learn of our contributions to the world of mathematics!
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News
Three C&O faculty win Outstanding Performance Awards
The awards are given each year to faculty members across the University of Waterloo who demonstrate excellence in teaching and research.
Prof. Alfred Menezes is named Fellow of the International Association for Cryptologic Research
The Fellows program, which was established in 2004, is awarded to no more than 0.25% of the IACR’s 3000 members each year and recognizes “outstanding IACR members for technical and professional contributions to cryptologic research.”
C&O student Ava Pun receives Jessie W. H. Zou Memorial Award
She received the award in recognition of her research on simulating virtual training environments for autonomous vehicles, which she conducted at the start-up Waabi.
Events
Fulkerson 100
![Delbert Ray Fulkerson](/combinatorics-and-optimization/sites/default/files/uploads/images/delbert_ray_fulkerson-cropped.png)
Fulkerson 100 is a workshop organized by the Dept. of Combinatorics & Optimization (C&O) from July 17-19, 2024 at the University of Waterloo, to celebrate Fulkerson's legacy and impact in discrete mathematics, especially in the fields of graph theory, optimization, and operations research. Fulkerson 100 will feature invited talks in graph theory, combinatorics, optimization, and theoretical computer science, given by some of the foremost researchers in these areas, as well as lightning talks and a poster session devoted to students and postdocs. By bringing together various leading researchers in discrete mathematics with junior researchers and students, the workshop aims to boost research in the areas pioneered by Fulkerson, while commemorating his vision and contributions.
Algebraic & Enumerative Combinatorics - Laura Pierson
Title: Two variations of the chromatic symmetric function
Speaker: | Laura Pierson |
Affiliation: | University of Waterloo |
Location: | MC 5479 |
Abstract: The /chromatic symmetric function/ is a symmetric function generalization of the chromatic polynomial that encodes the ways to color a graph such that no two adjacent vertices get the same color. We will discuss two different analogues of the chromatic symmetric function: a K-theoretic analogue called the /Kromatic symmetric function/, and a categorification called the /chromatic symmetric homology/. We show that certain properties of a graph can be recovered given its Kromatic symmetric function, and we give some formulas for special cases of the chromatic symmetric homology.
Tutte Colloquium - Paul Seymour
Title: Nearly-linear stable sets
Speaker: | Paul Seymour |
Affiliation: | Princeton University |
Location: | QNC 0101 |
Abstract: The Gyárfás-Sumner conjecture says that for every forest 𝐻 and complete graph 𝐾, there exists 𝑐 such that every {𝐻,𝐾}-free graph (that is, containing neither of 𝐻,𝐾 as an induced subgraph) has chromatic number at most 𝑐. This is still open, but we have proved that every {𝐻,𝐾}-free graph 𝐺 has chromatic number at most |𝐺|o(1).