Hall medal for UQ expert in patterns and combinations

A University of Queensland mathematician has received a distinguished international award for the quality of his research.

Dr Darryn Bryant, QEII Research Fellow in Combinatorial Mathematics from the School of Physical Sciences was recently awarded the Hall Medal from the Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications (ICA).

Dr Bryant was an invited speaker at the British Combinatorial Conference at The University of Reading last month where the award was presented.

"Combinatorics is a branch of mathematics which involves the study of arrangements, patterns, and combinations of discrete objects" explained Dr Bryant.

The medal recognises extensive quality research by ICA Members in mid-career. Recipients are nominated by two Fellows of the ICA. Dr Bryant was nominated by Associate Professor Elizabeth Billington from UQ and Professor Chris Rodger from Auburn University, USA.

"Darryn had been prolific in his career, with an impressive list of over 100 publications. He has also shown great depth and breadth in his work," Professor Rodger said.

"Darryn has solved several very difficult problems in discrete mathematics, especially in design theory and graph theory, and he has collaborated with people involved in drug design, in DNA sequence work, and in other bioinformatics areas."

"He has a real talent for making hard research seem relatively easy," Associate Professor Billington said.

Dr Bryant was also recently awarded a second Queen Elizabeth II Fellowship from the Australian Research Council.

Media: For further information contact Nelle Ross, Marketing and Communications, School of Physical Sciences (07) 3346 9935 or n.ross@sps.uq.edu.au.