CV

Academic Degrees:

August 2000Ph.D. in Mathematics (under the supervision of Doug. West), University of Illinois.
June 1994B.S. in Computer Science (with distinction), Zhejiang University.

Academic Positions:

July 2010 — presentProfessor , Miami University.
July 2006 — June 2010Associate Professor , Miami University.
August 2001 — July 2006Assistant Professor , Miami University.
August 2000 — August 2001Assistant Professor , Michigan Technological University.
September 1994 — June 2000Teaching/Research assistant , University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Honors:

Fall 2007Distinguished scholar award, Miami University
(In recognition of scholarship of a junior faculty member, one per year, selected campus-wide)
Spring 2001Outstanding Faculty Research Award , Mathematical Sciences, Michigan Technological University
Spring 2000Hohn-Nash Award , University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
(In recognition of outstanding scholarship and promise in applied mathematics. Two recipients are selected each year.)
March 1997 — presentHonor Society of Phi Kappa Phi

Grants:

7/2019 — 5/2024National Science Foundation Grant
“Extremal Problems on graphs and hypergraphs”,
7/2014 — 6/2018National Science Foundation Grant
“Extremal Problems for sparse hypergraphs and graphs”,
9/2013 — 8/2014Simons Foundation Collaboration Grant for Mathematicians
“Extremal problems on graphs, hypergraphs, and set systems
1/2007 — 1/2009National Security Agency Young Investigator Grant
“Extremal problems on color structures in edge-colorings of graphs”

Professional Services:

  • Referee regularly for professional journals, which include: Advances in Mathematics, Proceedings of AMS, Bulletin of London Math Society, International Mathematics Research Notices, Forum of Math: Sigma, Advances in Combinatorics, Journal of Combinatorial Theory Series A and B, Combinatorica, Combinatorics, Probability, and Computing, SIAM J. on Discrete Math,Journal of Graph Theory, Electronic J. Combinatorics, Discrete Math, Graphs and Combinatorics, and etc.
  • Organized two international meetings, one regional meeting, four minisymposia at SIAM meetings on Discrete Math, and six sepcial sessions at AMS meetings.
  • Reviewed grant proposals and served on panels for several federal research agencies.

Former students:

  • Adam Ghattas, Masters, 2007, Logos Analytics, owner.
  • Bryan Petrak, Masters, 2007, Ph.D. Delaware 2012. Systems engineer, Boeing.
  • Christine Truesdell, Masters, 2008.
  • Michael Salerno, Masters, 2009, Director of Personal lines product management, Cincinnati Insurance companies.
  • Robert Seiver, Masters, 2010, risk manager for a wealth management firm.
  • Edward Boehnlein, Masters, 2011, Ph.D. South Carolina, 2016. Senior Analyst, AML RightSource.
  • Axel Brandt, Masters, 2012, Ph.D. U. Colorado at Denver, 2016. Assistant professor, John Carroll University.
  • Andrew Newman, Masters, 2013. Ph.D. Ohio State University 2018. Assistant professor, Indiana State University.
  • Clayton Collier-Cartaino, Masters, 2014.
  • Nathan Graber, Masters 2014. Ph.D. University of Colorado at Denver, 2022.
  • David Irwin, Masters, 2015. Quality assurance automation engineer, Hungryroot.
  • Robert Enzmann, Masters, 2017, Ld. ML Engineer, CVS health.
  • Sean Longbrake, BS, 2022. Ph.D student at Emory University.

Recent Talks:

  • “Balanced supersaturation and its applications to enumeration problems”, 30th Altanta Lecture Series on graph theory and combinatorics, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, Nov, 2025.
  • “On the number of H-free hypergraphs”, Banff research station/Institute of Advanced Study in Mathematics workshop “Fontiers in Combinatorics and Computer Science”, IASM, Hangzhou, China, June 2025.
  • “Balanced supersaturation and Turan numbers in random graphs’’, Extremal Combinatorics at Illinois Meeting IV, Urbana, IL, June 2023.
  • “Balanced supersaturation and Turan numbers in random graphs’’, American Mathematical Society Sectional Meeting, Cincinnati, OH, April, 2023.
  • “Balanced supersaturation and Turan numbers in random graphs’’, Georgia Tech Combinatorics seminar, Atlanta, GA, March, 2023.
  • “Degenerate Turan problems’’, Emory University Combinatorics seminar, Atlanta, GA, Nov, 2022.
  • “Degenerate Turan problems for graphs”, University of Illinois Combinatorics Colloquium, September, 2021.
  • “Linear cycles of given lengths in linear hypergraphs”, SCMS Cominatorics online seminar, September, 2020.
  • “On Turan exponents of graphs”, Extremal and Probabilistic Combinatorics seminar (online), August, 2020.
  • “Linear cycles of consecutive lengths in linear hypergraphs”, University of Illinois Combinatorics seminar (online), June, 2020
  • “Many Turan exponents via subdivisions”, American Mathematical Society Sectional Meeting, Gainesville, FL, Fall 2019.
  • “On a hypergraph Turan problem”, American Mathematical Society Sectional Meeting, Madison, WI, Fall 2019.
  • “On Turan exponents of bipartite graphs”, American Mathematical Society Sectional Meeting, Ann Arbor, MI, Fall 2018.
  • “On Turan exponents of bipartite graphs”, SIAM Meeting on Discrete Mathematics, Denver, CO, June, 2018.
  • “Supersaturation of even linear cycles in linear hypergraphs”, American Mathematical Society Sectional Meeting, BUffalo, NY, Fall 2017.
  • “Turan numbers of small subdivisions”, SIAM Meeting on Discrete Mathematics, Atlanta, GA, June 2018.
  • “Turan problems for sparse hypergraphs”, SIAM Meeting on Discrete Mathematics, Atlanta, GA, June 2018.
  • “Hypergraph Turan numbers via Lagrangians”, American Mathematical Society Sectional Meeting, Salt Lake City, UT, Spring 2016.
  • “Turan problems for sparse hypergraphs”, Atlanta Lectures Series on Graphs and Combinatorics, Atlanta, GA, Fall 2015
  • “The Turan problem for hypergraph forests”, WestFest, a birthday conference in honor of Doug West’s 60th birthday, Minneapolis, MN, Summer 2014.
  • “The Turan problem for hypergraph forests”, WestFest, a birthday conference in honor of Doug West’s 60th birthday, Minneapolis, MN, Summer 2014.
  • “The Turan problem for hypergraph forests”, SIAM Discrete Mathematics Meeting, Minneapolis, MN, Summer 2014.
  • “The expansion method in Turan problems”, Mittag-Leffler Institute Special semester in graphs, hypergraphs, and computing, Stockholm, Sweden, Spring 2014.
  • “Two Turan results on graphs and hypergraphs”, American Mathematical Society Sectional Meeting, Louisville, KY, Fall 2013.
  • “Hypergraph Turan and Ramsey results on linear cycles”, EXCILL 2: Extremal Combinatorics at Illinois, Urbana, IL, Spring 2013.
  • “Hypergraph Turan numbers of linear cycles”, American Mathematical Society Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA, Winter 2013.
  • “Hypergraph Turan numbers of linear cycles”, American Mathematical Society Sectional Meeting, Akron, OH, Fall 2012.
  • “Turan numbers of expanded hypergraphs”, Oberwolfach workshop on Hypergraph Turan problems, Oberwolfach, Germany, Spring 2012.
  • “Co-degree threshold of the Fano plane”, Oberwolfach workshop on Hypergraph Turan problems, Oberwolfach, Germany, Spring 2012.
  • “Set families with a forbidden induced subposet”, American Mathematical Society Sectional Meeting, Washington, DC, Spring 2012.
  • “Turan numbers of expanded hypergraphs”, American Mathematical Society Sectional Meeting, Tampa, FL, Spring 2012.
  • “Hypergraph Turan numbers of uniform linear paths”, American Mathematical Society Sectional Meeting, Winston Salem. NC, Fall 2011.
  • “Turan numbers of subdivided graphs”, SIAM-SEAS Southeast Section Meeting, Charlotte, NC, Spring 2011.
  • “Turan numbers of subdivided graphs”, American Mathematical Society Sectional Meeting, Richmond, VA, Fall 2010.
  • “Set systems without a strong simplex”, American Mathematical Society Sectional Meeting, St. Paul, MN, Spring 2010.
  • “Some Turan type results”, SIAM Annual Meeting, Denver, CO, Summer 2009.
  • “Compact topological cliques in sparse graphs”, American Mathematical Society Sectional Meeting, Urbana, IL , 2009.