5-day minicourse on Structural Graph Theory Dr. Robin Thomas Georgia Institute of Technology, USA June 6 - 10, 2005

Robin Thomas received his doctorate from Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic, and is now a professor of mathematics at the Georgia Institute of Technology, with an adjunct appointment in industrial and systems engineering. His research interests center around the structure of graphs and applications to algorithms and graph coloring. Most recently he has worked on the Strong Perfect Graph Conjecture, Pfaffian orientations of graphs, and questions related to the Four-Color Theorem. He is currently writing a book on structural graph theory. In 1994 he received the D. Ray Fulkerson Prize (awarded jointly by the American Mathematical Society and the Mathematical Programming Society) and he is the editor of several journals.

Contents
Graph Structure Theory is concerned with establishing results that characterize various properties of graphs, and utilizes these theorems in the design of efficient algorithms and other applications. A typical example is the 2-paths theorem that relates two seemingly distant properties: the existence of two disjoint paths with specified ends and graph planarity.

The course will survey the major ingredients of the theory with special emphasis on graph minors: graph planarity, graphs on surfaces, representativity of surface embeddings, tree-width and related invariants, the excluded clique theorem and the k disjoint paths problem. We will present various applications, such as linkless embeddings of graphs, separators, Pfaffian orientations of graphs, Hadwiger's conjecture, the Four-Color theorem and its generalizations, and digraph minors. If time permits we will also discuss perfect graphs and the Strong Perfect Graph Conjecture.

Time and Place
Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, The Netherlands,
June 6 - 10, 2005.

Admission fee
The admission fee for this minicourse is EURO 700. However, our courses are free of charge for EIDMA members and for university students in general. Reductions or exemptions do apply to members of other academic insitiutes. For the exact conditions please see our minicourse registration form.

Registration
You can register by sending a completed registration form to ms. Henny Houben at eidma@tue.nl. Deadline for registration is May 22, 2005.
Please note that your registration is only official after our written confirmation of its receipt.