Paul Seymour, a world expert in mathematics, comes to CU to receive an award
Bratislava 26 August 2019: On Tuesday 27 August, one of the most prominent mathematicians of the present day, Paul Seymour (69), who is based at Princeton University, will come to Comenius University to receive a Commemorative Medal. Seymour, originally from Britain, is an elite academic in discrete mathematics, combinatorics, and graph theory.
Paul Seymour has co-authored a long and revolutionary series of articles about minors in graph theory which has determined the direction of research in this area. “If there was a Nobel Prize for mathematics, then Paul Seymour would definitely be a hot candidate,” said the vice-dean of the Faculty of Mathematics, Physics, and Informatics, Róbert Jajcay.
Perhaps his most widely known work is his contribution to the simplification of proof of the four-colour theorem. This theorem states that every planar map can be coloured using a maximum of four colours so that no two countries with a common border (not just one point) will have the same colour, thus allowing political maps, for instance, to show colour variation.
“Anyone who attempts to colour in such a map will quickly see that four colours are enough for all real maps with a reasonable number of countries. By contrast, it is surprisingly difficult to prove the general application of this theory and that there does not exist a certain complicated map where more colours need to be used,” explains Jajcay. It is important to find an explanation that covers all possible maps, even those that have never been thought of before. The number of possible maps is infinite.
Seymour has worked at the University of Oxford, the University of Waterloo, and Ohio State University. He holds two honorary doctorates and a number of awards in mathematics, including the Ostrowski Prize, the George Pólya Prize, and the Fulkerson Prize.
At 2:30 pm on Tuesday, Seymour will receive the university's Commemorative Medal in the Auditorium from the university's rector, Marek Števček. "It is an honour for us to host the world's leaders in combinatorics in the 100th year of our university. Professor Seymour is a true inspiration among them and for those beyond the world of mathematical professionals,” the rector said.
Paul Seymour's visit is associated with his speech at the 2019 Eurocomb conference (a European conference on combinatorics, graph theory, and their applications), which takes place this year at Comenius University in Bratislava. The conference takes place every two years in a different European city and represents a forum for experts to exchange the latest knowledge in the field. Almost 200 mathematicians from around the world will be present, among them other top world experts.