How many colours do you need to be able to colour a map in such a way that no two countries sharing a border receive the same colour? Finding the smallest number of colours that will work for any map is a question that eluded mathematicians for centuries. In this talk, Dr. Morrison will discuss the history of this problem, and the solution.
Dr. Natasha Morrison joined the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at UVic in 2020. Before this, she spent time as a post doctoral fellow at the University of Cambridge and at Instituto Nacional de Matemática Pura e Aplicada in Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. She obtained her PhD from the University of Oxford. She has a wide range of research interests, mainly in the areas of extremal and probabilistic combinatorics. Broadly speaking, these concern understanding the structure and properties of large scale networks, and how processes, such as the spread of disease or influence, behave in various settings.
Deans' Lecture Series
Research is continually reshaping the way we live and think. In these online talks you'll hear from distinguished members of the faculties at the University of Victoria and learn about their research interests.
