Linda Lesniak – Traversing graphs

Speaker: Linda Lesniak

Affiliation: Department of Mathematics, Western Michigan University

Title: Traversing graphs – Complexity of algorithms

Abstract:

What is the shortest possible route for a traveling salesperson seeking to visit each city on a list exactly once and to return to her city of origin?  Is it possible for a postal deliverer to travel each street on his route exactly once and end at the post office where he began?  AND, if we can determine the answers to these questions, can we find the salesperson’s route?  By the way, what does “efficiently” mean? We’ll talk about these problems and my personal mathematical route from Gary, IN to San Marcos, TX.

Date: March 8, 2017

Time: 11am -12.00 noon

Place: UAC 474

Speaker’s bio: Dr. Linda Lesniak has held tenured professorships in mathematics at Louisiana State University, Western Michigan University and Drew University.  She was a co-PI on major NSF grants funding workshops for high school mathematics teachers and graph theory researchers to meet and work together at Rutgers University.  She has written over 80 research articles in graph theory and has co-authored well-known graph theory books.  Professor Lesniak continues to serve on several mathematical journal editorial boards, travels extensively giving mathematical talks and is especially looking forward to visiting Texas State University.  Meeting and mentoring students has always been an important part of her life as a mathematician.

Lesniak Flyer