Curriculum Vitae of David Galvin

University of Notre Dame, Department of Mathematics
255 Hurley Hall, Notre Dame, IN 46556-4618
+ 1 574 217 8224
dgalvin1@nd.edu
http://www.nd.edu/~dgalvin1/


RESEARCH
EMPLOYMENT
VISITING POSITIONS
EDUCATION
PUBLICATIONS
CONFERENCE PARTICIPATION
PROFESSIONAL INVOLVEMENT
HONOURS
PRESENTATIONS
TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Research

Discrete probability, combinatorics and graph theory; in particular, the applications of combinatorial ideas to the study of phase transitions in statistical physics models, the efficiency of algorithms in theoretical computer science, and long-range correlations in discrete random structures

Employment

July 2007 --- Assistant Professor Department of Mathematics, University of Notre Dame
2005 --- June 2007 Lecturer Department of Mathematics, University of Pennsylvania
2004 --- 2005 Member School of Mathematics, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton
Fall 2003 Auxiliary Faculty Department of Marthematics, University of Washington
2002 -- 2004 Postdoctoral Researcher Theory Group, Microsoft Research

Visiting positions

June 2008 Visiting Fellow Isaac Newton Institute, University of Cambridge
Jan/Feb 2005 General Member MSRI, Berkeley

Education

1996 --- 2002 Ph.D. in Mathematics Rutgers University, Department of Mathematics
Advisor, Jeffry Kahn
1995 --- 1996 Part III of Mathematical Tripos Peterhouse, University of Cambridge
1992 -- 1995 B.A. in Mathematics Peterhouse, University of Cambridge

Publications

Papers Submitted

  • Matchings and Independent Sets of a Fixed Size in Regular Graphs
    (with Teena Carroll and Prasad Tetali)

Papers Appeared

  • Sampling independent sets on the discrete torus
    (Random Structures & Algorithms 33 (2008), 356--376)
  • Sampling 3-colourings of regular bipartite graphs
    (Electronic Journal of Probability 12 (2007), 481--497)
  • Torpid Mixing of Local Markov Chains on 3-Colorings of the Discrete Torus (with D. Randall)
    (Proceedings of the Eighteenth Annual ACM--SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms (SODA 2007), 376--384)
  • Bounding the partition function of spin systems
    (Electronic Journal of Combinatorics 13 No. 1 (2006), R72)
  • Global connectivity from local geometric constraints for sensor networks with various wireless footprints (with R. D'Souza, C. Moore and D. Randall)
    (Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Information Processing in Sensor Networks (IPSN 2006), 19--26)
  • Slow mixing of Glauber dynamics for the hard-core model on regular bipartite graphs (with P. Tetali)
    (Random Structures & Algorithms 28 (2006), 427-443)
  • On weighted graph homomorphisms (with P. Tetali)
    (DIMACS Series in Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science 63 (2004) Graphs, Morphisms and Statistical Physics, 97--104; summary appears as Entropy and graph homomorphisms (Oberwolfach Reports 1 No. 1 (2004), 30--32))
  • On phase transition in the hard-core model on Z^d (with J. Kahn)
    (Combinatorics, Probability and Computing 13 (2004), 137--164)
  • Slow mixing of Glauber dynamics for the hard-core model on the hypercube (summary, with P. Tetali)
    (Proceedings of the Fifteenth Annual ACM--SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms (SODA 2004), 459--460)
  • On homomorphisms from the Hamming cube to Z
    (Israel Journal of Mathematics 138 (2003), 189--213)
  • Two problems involving the notion of phase transition
    (Ph.D. thesis, Rutgers University, October 2002)

Conference Participation

  • AMS Sectional Meeting, Bloomington IN, April 2008
    (Invited participant, Special Session on Probability and Spatial Systems)
  • 1st Canadian Discrete and Algorithmic Mathematics Conference (CanaDAM 2007), Banff AB, May 2007
    (Organizer, Invited minisymposium on problems at the interface of discrete mathematics and statistical physics)
  • ACM--SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms (SODA), New Orleans, January 2007
    (Participant, concurrent sessions)
  • DIMACS-DIMATIA-Renyi Partnership Meeting, New Brunswick NJ, November 2005
    (Invited participant, Algebraic and Geometric Methods in Combinatorics III)
  • 13th INFORMS Applied Probability Conference, Ottawa ON, July 2005
    (Invited participant, Special Session on Spatial Dependence in Stochastic Networks)
  • Canadian Mathematical Society Summer Meeting, Waterloo ON, June 2005
    (Invited participant, Special Session on Random Graphs and their applications)
  • MSRI Program on Probability, Algorithms and Statistical Physics, February 2005
    (Invited participant, Workshop on Mixing of Markov Chains in Physics and Algorithms)
  • ACM--SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms (SODA), New Orleans, January 2004
    (Participant, concurrent sessions)
  • Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach, January 2004
    (Invited participant, Workshop in Combinatorics)
  • BIRS Focused Research Group, Banff AB, July 2003
    (Invited participant, ``Problems in Discrete Probability'')
  • AMS Sectional Meeting, Bloomington IN, April 2003
    (Invited participant, Special Session on Probability)
  • DIMACS-DIMATIA-Renyi Partnership Meeting, Prague, December 2002
    (Invited participant, HOMONOLO' 02 --- Workshop on graph homomorphisms)
  • Isaac Newton Institute programme on Computation, Combinatorics and Probability, Cambridge, August 2002
    (Participant, ``Combinatorial and Computational aspects of Statistical Physics'' and ``Random Graphs and Structures'')
  • Joint Mathematics Meetings, New Orleans, January 2001
    (Participant, Two day MAA minicourse, ``WeBWorK, an internet-based system for generating and delivering homework problems to students'')

Professional Involvement

2006 --- present Reviewer, Mathematical Reviews
2005 --- 2007 University of Pennsylvania Department of Mathematics
  • Probability and Combinatorics Seminar Coordinator
  • Preliminary Exam Committee
  • Class of 1880 Prize Exam Committee
  • Masters thesis examiner
  • Oral qualifying examiner
2003 --- present Member, Mathematical Association of America
1999 --- present Referee
  • Algorithmica
  • Discrete Mathematics
  • Random Structures & Algorithms
  • Combinatorica
  • SIAM Journal of Discrete Mathematics
  • Journal of Physics A
  • Proceedings of the AMS
  • Electronic Journal of Probability
1999 --- 2000 Graduate Student Seminar Coordinator, Rutgers Mathematics Department
1996 -- present Member, American Mathematical Society

Honours

Fall 2006 Good Teaching Award, Department of Mathematics, University of Pennsylvania
2001 --- 2002 Rutgers University Graduate School Fellowship
1993 --- 1995 Scholar of Peterhouse, University of Cambridge
1990 Represented Ireland at International Mathematical Olympiad

Presentations

09/01/08 The ``Happy End'' Problem --- A Mathematical Love Story (Graduate Student Seminar, University of Notre Dame)
04/28/08 Independent sets in graphs (Applied Mathematics Colloquium, University of Notre Dame)
04/06/08 Sampling 3-colourings of the discrete torus (AMS Sectional Meeting, Indiana University)
05/29/07 Counting matchings and independent sets of a fixed size (Canadian Discrete and Algorithmic Mathematics Conference, Banff)
02/13/07 Spin models in combinatorics, computer science and statistical physics (Colloquium, University of Memphis)
02/06/07 Spin models in combinatorics, computer science and statistical physics (Colloquium, Dartmouth College)
01/30/07 Spin models in discrete probability, statistical physics and theoretical computer science (Colloquium, University of Notre Dame)
01/30/07 Spin models in discrete probability, statistical physics and theoretical computer science (Seminar, University of Pennsylvania)
01/07/07 Sampling 3-colourings of the discrete torus (ACM--SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms, New Orleans)
11/29/06 Global connectivity from local conditions (Discrete math seminar, Princeton University)
11/15/06 Spin models: Gibbs measures and mixing times (Colloquium, Lehigh University)
10/06/06 Counting colourings (Combinatorics seminar, University of Delaware)
04/21/06 Erdos' proof of Bertrand's postulate (Graduate pizza seminar, University of Pennsylvania)
03/28/06 The range of the cube-indexed random walk (Combinatorics and Probability Seminar, University of Pennsylvania)
03/10/06 Bounding the partition function of spin-systems (Combinatorics Seminar, Georgia Tech)
11/17/05 The influence of variables on Boolean functions III (Probability working group, University of Pennsylvania)
11/10/05 The influence of variables on Boolean functions II (Probability working group, University of Pennsylvania)
11/08/05 Bounding the partition function of spin-systems (DIMACS workshop on Algebraic and Geometric methods in Combinatorics)
11/3/05 The influence of variables on Boolean functions I (Probability working group, University of Pennsylvania)
07/08/05 Long-range influence in the hard-core model (13th INFORMS Applied Probability Conference, Ottawa ON)
06/04/05 Bounding the partition function of spin-systems (Canadian Mathematical Society Summer Meeting, Waterloo ON)
03/09/05 Entropy and graph homomorphisms (Combinatorics Seminar, Graduate Center, CUNY)
02/22/05 Entropy and graph homomorphisms (Combinatorics Seminar, University of Pennsylvania)
02/03/05 Slow mixing of local dynamics for 3-colourings on regular bipartite graphs (Probability, Algorithms and Statistical Physics Workshop, MSRI)
01/26/05
Homomorphisms from the Hamming cube to Z (Probability Seminar, UC Berkeley)
01/24/05 Entropy and graph homomorphisms (Probability Seminar, Stanford)
12/09/04 Slow mixing of local dynamics for uniform colourings and independent sets (Probability and Algorithms Seminar, University of Pennsylvania)
12/01/04 Homomorphisms from the Hamming cube to Z (Discrete Mathematics Seminar, Princeton)
11/16/04 Slow mixing of local dynamics for uniform colourings and independent sets II (Discrete Mathematics Seminar, IAS)
11/09/04 Slow mixing of local dynamics for uniform colourings and independent sets I (Discrete Mathematics Seminar, IAS)
10/04/04 Counting graph homomorphisms (IAS, Princeton)
02/12/04 The entropy method in combinatorics (Combinatorics, Optimization and Algorithms Seminar, CMU)
02/02/04 The entropy method in combinatorics (Probability Seminar, University of Washington)
01/26/04 The hard-core model: where statistical physics, communications networks and computer science meet (Colloquium, University of Rochester)
01/12/04
Slow mixing of Glauber dynamics for the hard-core model on the hypercube (ACM--SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms, New Orleans)
01/09/04 Entropy and graph homomorphisms (Combinatorics Workshop, Mathematisches Forscungsinstitut Oberwolfach)
12/16/03 The hard-core model: where statistical physics, communications networks and computer science meet (Nonlinear Systems Seminar, Stevens Institute of Technology)
11/14/03 The hard-core model: where statistical physics, communications networks and computer science meet (Colloquium, George Washington University)
10/06/03 Slow mixing of Glauber dynamics for the hard-core model on the hypercube (Microsoft Theory Group)
09/16/03 Slow mixing of Glauber dynamics for the hard-core model on the hypercube (Combinatorics Seminar, Georgia Tech)
04/21/03 Gibbs measures for independent set models (Probability Seminar, University of Washington)
04/05/03 Entropy and graph homomorphisms (AMS Sectional Meeting, Indiana University)
01/29/03 Counting functions on the discrete cube (Combinatorics Seminar, University of Washington)
12/17/02 Counting weighted graph homomorphisms (Combinatorics Seminar, Microsoft Theory Group)
12/17/02 Counting weighted graph homomorphisms (HOMONOLO' 02, Prague)
08/28/02 Homomorphisms from the Hamming cube to Z (Isaac Newton Institute, Cambridge)
06/06/02 Two problems involving the notion of phase transition (Ph.D. Thesis Defense, Rutgers University)
02/08/02 Phase transition in the hard-core model on Z^d (Combinatorics Seminar, MIT)
01/24/02 Phase transition in the hard-core model on Z^d (Microsoft Theory Group)
01/18/02 Phase transition in the hard-core model on Z^d (Combinatorics Seminar, Georgia Tech)
11/16/01 WeBWorK: providing real technological support for a real course (VIGRE seminar, Rutgers University, with Professor Stephen Greenfield)
11/13/01 Phase transition in the hard-core model on Z^d (Discrete Math Seminar, Rutgers University)
10/24/01 Phase transition in the hard-core model on Z^d (IAS, Princeton)
9/19/01 Conway's solitaire army problem (Graduate Student Seminar, Rutgers Mathematics Department) (*)
3/28/01 Erdos' proof of Bertrand's postulate (Graduate Student Seminar, Rutgers Mathematics Department) (*)
1/30/01 WeBWorK instructional seminar (Learning Resource Center, Rutgers University)
1/19/01 WeBWorK instructional seminar (Instructional staff, Rutgers Mathematics Department)
9/22/00 Equilateral sets in the l_1-norm (Graduate Student Seminar, Rutgers Mathematics Department)
5/1/00 A triptych of recreational problems (DIMACS graduate student seminar, Rutgers University)
9/15/99 Hilbert's third problem (Graduate Student Seminar, Rutgers Mathematics Department)
4/6/99 Schnirelmann density, Waring's problem and Goldbach's conjecture (Graduate Student Seminar, Rutgers Mathematics Department)
3/3/98 The finitization of Eckhoff's conjecture (Graduate Student Seminar, Rutgers Mathematics Department)

(*) -- voted best seminar of semester

Teaching Experience

Spring 2008 Introduction to operations research, University of Notre Dame (Math 30440)
Calculus II, University of Notre Dame (Math 10560)
Fall 2007 Introduction to Operations Research, University of Notre Dame (Math 30210)
Spring 2007 Probabilistic methods in combinatorics, University of Pennsylvania (Math 581)
Multivariable Calculus, University of Pennsylvania (Math 114)
Fall 2006 Multivariable Calculus, University of Pennsylvania (Math 114)
Spring 2006 Computational Linear Algebra, University of Pennsylvania (Math 313)
Fall 2005 Introduction to Probability, University of Pennsylvania (Math 430)
Multivariable Calculus, University of Pennsylvania (Math 114)
Fall 2003 Multivariable Calculus, University of Washington (Math 324)
Summer 2001 Number Theory, Rutgers University (Math 356)
2000 --- 2001 Calculus I Head Teaching Assistant, Rutgers University
  • Developed new syllabus
  • Coordinated office hours of 45 instructors
  • Managed mailing list of 1700 students
  • Introduced WeBWorK, a web-based homework application
  • Provided support for the system's 600 users
Summer 2000 Single Variable Calculus II, Rutgers University (Math 152)
1997 --- 2000 Recitation instructor for various calculus courses, Rutgers University
Summer 1998 Linear Algebra, Rutgers University (Math 250)
1996 -- 1997 Grader for 300- and 400-level courses, Rutgers University