Contact Info
Combinatorics & Optimization
University of Waterloo
Waterloo, Ontario
Canada N2L 3G1
Phone: 519-888-4567, ext 33038
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Combinatorics has for many years been an active field to which several excellent journals are devoted, but it was not always so. As recently as the 1960's there were no journals devoted exclusively to combinatorics. While a few traditional mathematics journals (including the Canadian Journal of Mathematics) published combinatorics papers, others refused even to consider such papers for publication.
In response to this situation and to the burgeoning growth of the field, the Journal of Combinatorial Theory (JCT) was founded by Frank Harary, Gian-Carlo Rota, Bill Tutte and others in 1966. It was the first journal devoted to articles in combinatorics. A year later it moved to Waterloo with Bill Tutte as editor-in-chief. In 1971 it was reorganized into two series; it was JCT Series B, devoted mainly to graph and matroid theory, that remained at Waterloo with Tutte as Editor-in-Chief. He served until 1985, and continued as Honorary Editor until his death in 2002.
Over the years a number of other Combinatorics and Optimization (C&O) faculty members served as editor-in-chief or managing editor. They include Ron Mullin, Dan Younger, Bruce Richmond, Adrian Bondy, Bill Pulleyblank, USR Murty, Bill Cunningham, Penny Haxell, Bruce Richter, and Nick Wormald.
In 2013 the editorial office moved with Nick Wormald to Monash University in Australia. While there are now many combinatorics journals, JCT remains not only the first one, but one of the best. The C&O department is proud to have played such a significant role in the history of the Journal of Combinatorial Theory.
Other journals founded by C&O faculty members: