Ahmad Abdi was a University Finalist for the Alumni Gold Medal awarded to a Ph.D. student at the Fall 2018 convocation ceremonies.
Ahmad completed his Ph.D. thesis on Ideal Clutters under the supervision of Professor Bertrand Guenin. The thesis builds a theory of ideal clutters, and develops surprising links with cuboids. A highlight of the thesis was the resolution of Paul Seymour's f-flowing conjecture (1977) in the case of clutters that contain a triangle.
Ahmad's thesis received high praise from his examining committee. His supervisor wrote: "The work in Ahmad’s thesis is massive and is the subject of 10 distinct papers. It has single handedly revived an area of polyhedral combinatorics that had been left mostly dormant in the past decade and I believe that this thesis will be an important historical marker in the field."
Ahmad taught two courses during his Ph.D. studies, CO 351 (Network Flow Theory) and a graduate course on "Packing and Covering". His development of the material for the graduate course was novel and original, and his notes are intended to be the basis for a graduate textbook.
Ahmad presently holds an NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship at Carnegie University Mellon. In August 2019, he will begin an assistant professorship in the Department of Mathematics at the London School of Economics and Political Science.