��ݮ��Ƶ

Congratulations to Sophie Spirkl, one of this year’s recipients of a Faculty of Mathematics Research Chair. These chair designations recognize “scholarly achievement and pre-eminence in a particular field of knowledge,” and provide recipients with $50,000 in research funding per year and a teaching reduction of one course per year, for a total of three years. No more than five per cent of all faculty members can hold a Faculty of Mathematics Research Chair at any one time.

Spirkl is an assistant professor of Combinatorics and Optimization, and has been at the University of ��ݮ��Ƶ since 2020. She works in the area of structural graph theory. “What we do, roughly, is to ask: ‘If I know something local and small-scale about this large structure, can I deduce something global?’” she says. Spirkl explains that many aspects of everyday life can be understood through graphs. “Think, for example, of people; some pairs are connected – they know each other – and others are not. It’s rather unlikely that you know 100 people and no two of them know each other. So there is some structure going on with which pairs are connected.” Structural graph theory, Spirkl explains, helps us analyze and predict these real-life connections.

“She is regarded as one of the strongest graph-theorists in the world,” says Chaitanya Swamy, chair of the Department of Combinatorics and Optimization. “It is hardly surprising (and a further testament of her research caliber) that she has already garnered an impressive list of distinguished awards,” including the prestigious Sloan Fellowship, Ontario Ministry Early Researcher Award and a Math Faculty Golden Jubilee Research Excellence Award.

Spirkl expresses her gratitude to Swamy for his mentorship and nomination, as well as to the Department and Math Faculty for their support and welcome – especially considering that she began her time at ��ݮ��Ƶ during the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s exciting and an honor to receive the Research Chair!” Spirkl says. “It will allow me to expand my network of collaborators even further, in particular by giving me the means to support more students.”

You can learn more about Sophie Spirkl on . You can learn more about the Faculty of Mathematics Research Chairs on the Research Chairs website.