9401981 Robertson This award supports the research of Professor G. Neil Robertson to work in combinatorics. Professor Robertson will continue his work on the graph minors project in an attempt to provide better information on finite graphs. The work will include an investigation into questions of coloring, surface embeddings, finite structure, and connectivity of graphs. The research is in the general area of combinatorics, in particular graph theory. Combinatorics attempts to find efficient methods to study how discrete collections can be organized. Graphs are arrangements of points connected by lines. The behavior of discrete collections like graphs is extremely important in modeling systems and plays a role in modern computing, communications and operations. For example, the design of large networks, as in telephone systems, and the design of algorithms in computer science all use graphs in their development, and make use of combinatorial research.
