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| Richard Brualdi | |
|---|---|
| Name | Richard A. Brualdi |
| Birth date | 1947 |
| Birth place | United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | Combinatorics, Matrix Theory, Design Theory |
| Workplaces | University of Wisconsin–Madison |
| Alma mater | University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign |
| Doctoral advisor | Richard R. Canfield |
| Known for | Brualdi–Ryser conjecture, combinatorial matrix theory, design theory textbooks |
Richard Brualdi is an American mathematician known for contributions to combinatorics, matrix theory, and design theory. He is a professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and author of influential textbooks used in undergraduate and graduate courses. His work intersects with problems and figures across graph theory, design theory, linear algebra, and combinatorial matrix theory.
Brualdi was born in the United States and completed his undergraduate studies before pursuing graduate work at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. At Illinois he studied under advisor Richard R. Canfield and earned a Ph.D. in mathematics, engaging with topics linked to Paul Erdős-style problems, Ronald Graham-inspired combinatorics, and connections to researchers such as Branko Grünbaum and Richard Stanley. During his formative years he interacted with the mathematical communities at institutions like Bell Labs, the Institute for Advanced Study, and the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute.
Brualdi joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he developed courses drawing on the work of scholars such as Paul Erdos, George Pólya, John von Neumann, and Stewart MacLane. He supervised graduate students who went on to positions in departments including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the California Institute of Technology, and the University of California, Berkeley. His academic appointments included visiting positions and collaborations with groups at the Université Paris-Sud, the University of Waterloo, the ETH Zurich, and the Australian National University.
Brualdi's research spans combinatorial matrix theory, Latin squares, incidence matrices, and design theory, with connections to the work of Richard A. Brualdi-adjacent problems and the celebrated Ryser conjecture (often referenced as the Brualdi–Ryser context) involving transversals in Latin squares related to Harold N. Shapiro and H. J. Ryser. He made contributions on permanents of matrices tied to Gian-Carlo Rota's combinatorial philosophies and to the Van der Waerden conjecture literature. His papers connect to themes in results by Béla Bollobás, László Lovász, Noga Alon, and Miklós Simonovits on extremal combinatorics and to matrix inequalities related to Marcel Marcus. Brualdi worked on enumeration problems related to Kirkman-type designs and links to the Steiner system tradition traced to Raymond Paley and Thomas Kirkman; he examined properties of incidence matrices in the spirit of Egon Balas and John Riordan. His contributions often bridge theory and applications relevant to researchers at the National Bureau of Standards, the National Science Foundation, and engineering groups at IBM and AT&T.
Brualdi authored widely used texts that synthesize work by figures such as Donald Knuth, Herbert Wilf, Richard Stanley, Ian Stewart, and Miklos Bona. His books on combinatorial matrix theory and combinatorics have been adopted alongside monographs by László Lovász, Ronald Graham, Miklós Bóna, and William T. Tutte. Journal publications by Brualdi appeared in venues including the Journal of Combinatorial Theory, the SIAM Journal on Discrete Mathematics, and the Linear Algebra and its Applications, where he engaged with editors and contributors like Richard P. Stanley, Merris Russell, and Paul D. Seymour. His expository writing connects to surveys by Persi Diaconis and historical treatments by E. T. Bell.
Brualdi's recognition includes honors and fellowships associated with professional organizations such as the American Mathematical Society, the Mathematical Association of America, and awards similar in stature to prizes bearing the names of Lester R. Ford and Herschel E. Reeder. He has been invited to speak at meetings of the American Mathematical Society, the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, and the International Congress of Mathematicians-related venues. His work has been cited in collections honoring figures like Paul Erdős, Jerrold Marsden, and John Conway.
Brualdi served on editorial boards and committees for journals and organizations including the Mathematical Association of America, the American Mathematical Society, and panels for the National Science Foundation. He organized conferences and workshops with mathematicians from institutions such as the University of Cambridge, the École Normale Supérieure, and the University of Oxford, facilitating interactions among researchers like Béla Bollobás, Peter J. Cameron, and Branko Grünbaum. His outreach included expository lectures at events hosted by the Carnegie Mellon University, the Princeton University mathematics department, and summer schools linked to the American Institute of Mathematics.
Category:American mathematicians Category:Combinatorialists Category:University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty