Australasian Conference on Combinatorial Mathematics

Australasian Conference on Combinatorial Mathematics
Name	Australasian Conference on Combinatorial Mathematics
Abbreviation	ACCM
Discipline	Combinatorics
First	1985
Frequency	Biennial
Country	Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea

Contents

Australasian Conference on Combinatorial Mathematics is a biennial scholarly meeting that gathers researchers in Paul Erdős-related fields and allied areas from Australia, New Zealand, and the wider Australasia region. The conference has connections with institutions such as the Australian Mathematical Society, University of Melbourne, University of Auckland, and international bodies like the American Mathematical Society, European Mathematical Society, and the International Mathematical Union through collaborative programs and visiting scholars. Its remit overlaps with research themes addressed at meetings like the International Congress of Mathematicians, the Sixty-Seventh London Mathematical Society Symposium, and workshops hosted by the Fields Institute.

History

The conference emerged in the mid-1980s amid growth in combinatorial research influenced by figures such as Paul Erdős, Ronald Graham, Richard Stanley, László Lovász, and Avi Wigderson, with early organizers drawn from University of Sydney, Monash University, University of Canterbury, and University of Otago. Over successive editions the program reflected advances from work by Brendan McKay, Béla Bollobás, Noga Alon, Miklós Simonovits, and Alan Frieze, while attracting participants connected to projects at the Australian National University, CSIRO, University of Queensland, and the University of Western Australia. The conference has evolved alongside developments in graph theory and design theory associated with Paul Erdős collaborators and later generations tied to research centers such as the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute and the Isaac Newton Institute.

Governance typically involves a steering committee comprising representatives from universities including University of Melbourne, Australian National University, University of Adelaide, Victoria University of Wellington, and University of Tasmania, with rotating chairs previously held by academics linked to Monash University, University of Sydney, and University of Otago. Sponsorship and oversight have come from organizations such as the Australian Mathematical Society, New Zealand Mathematical Society, Royal Society of New Zealand, and funding agencies like the Australian Research Council and the Marsden Fund. Program committees commonly include specialists who have collaborated with or are peers of Béla Bollobás, Noga Alon, János Pach, Endre Szemerédi, and Paul Seymour, ensuring peer review practices align with standards promoted by the American Mathematical Society and European Mathematical Society.

Typical formats mirror those used at the International Congress of Mathematicians and regional symposia, including invited plenary lectures, contributed talks, poster sessions, and special sessions on topics pioneered by researchers like Richard Stanley, Carsten Thomassen, Robin Wilson, C. R. Rao, and Ralph Faudree. Workshops often highlight themes such as extremal graph theory, Ramsey theory, design theory, matroid theory, and algorithmic combinatorics, with sessions featuring collaborators of Noga Alon, Miklós Simonovits, László Lovász, Paul Erdős, and Endre Szemerédi. Tutorials and problem sessions sometimes invite early-career researchers associated with the Fields Institute, Institute for Advanced Study, and national doctoral programs tied to Australian National University and University of Cambridge supervisors.

Proceedings have been published in edited volumes and special issues of journals linked to publishers and outlets such as the Australian Mathematical Society, Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Discrete Mathematics, Electronic Journal of Combinatorics, and proceedings series affiliated with the Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications. Editorial boards for these volumes have included contributors with ties to Béla Bollobás, Brendan McKay, Noga Alon, Richard Stanley, and László Lovász, and peer review practices reflect standards used by the American Mathematical Society and the European Mathematical Society. Selected papers from plenary lectures have sometimes been invited for expanded treatment in venues connected to the Cambridge University Press and the Springer series on combinatorics and discrete mathematics.

Notable participants have included prominent combinatorialists and graph theorists who have collaborated with or been influenced by Paul Erdős, including Béla Bollobás, Noga Alon, Brendan McKay, Endre Szemerédi, László Lovász, Robin Wilson, Richard Stanley, Paul Seymour, and C. R. Rao-affiliated statisticians at regional institutions. Contributions presented have advanced results in extremal combinatorics, Ramsey theory, graph algorithms, and design theory, connecting to landmark work by Erdős–Rényi, Szemerédi, Rado, Tutte, and Kirkman. Several results first reported at the conference later appeared in journals such as Journal of Combinatorial Theory and Discrete Mathematics and influenced projects at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute and the Fields Institute.

The conference is typically biennial and rotates among host institutions across Australia and New Zealand, with past venues including University of Melbourne, University of Sydney, Monash University, University of Auckland, University of Canterbury, and University of Otago, and occasional regional meetings in cities like Brisbane, Adelaide, Wellington, and Christchurch. Special anniversary editions have aligned with seminars at the Australian National University and collaborative events at the Isaac Newton Institute, attracting delegates from institutions such as Princeton University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Cambridge, and University of Oxford.

Category:Mathematics conferences