Chris Godsil appointed Distinguished Professor Emeritus

At the Fall 2019 convocation ceremonies, Professor Chris Godsil was appointed Distinguished Professor Emeritus.

Chris commenced a faculty position in the C&O department in 1987. His 32-year career in C&O has been marked by outstanding research and teaching accomplishments.

Chris is a world authority in the field of algebraic combinatorics, with particular expertise in the area of algebraic graph theory. His scholarly work over more than 40 years has had a profound influence on the development of the subject, and has impacted the work of many researchers working in mathematics, computer science, physics, and chemistry. More recently, he has been a pioneer in using techniques from algebraic combinaorics to tackle some fundamental questions in quantum information theory.

Chris is the author of more than 100 journal papers and three graduate-level books: Algebraic Combinatorics was published in 1993, Algebraic Graph Theory, co-authored with Gordon Royle, was published in 2001, and Erdos-Ko Rado Theorems: Algebraic Approaches, co-authored with Karen Meagher, was published in 2016. In 1992, he co-founded (with Ian Goulden and David Jackson) the Journal of Algebraic Combinatorics.

Also highly notable is Chris's success in graduate supervision. He has supervised 17 Ph.D. students and 20 Master's students at Waterloo, and continues to be very active in graduate student supervision. In 2015, he was the recipient of a University of Waterloo's Award of Excellence in Graduate Supervision.