Fred S. Roberts
Encyclopedia
Fred Stephen Roberts is an American
mathematician
, a professor of mathematics at Rutgers University
and the director of DIMACS
.
, and received his Ph.D. from Stanford University
in 1968; his doctoral advisor
was Dana Scott
. After holding positions at the University of Pennsylvania
, RAND
, and the Institute for Advanced Study
, he joined the Rutgers faculty in 1972.
He has been vice president of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
twice, in 1984 and 1986, and has been director of DIMACS since 1996.
and combinatorics
, and their applications in modeling problems in the social sciences and biology
. Among his contributions to pure mathematics, he is known for introducing the concept of boxicity
, the minimum dimension needed to represent a given undirected graph as an intersection graph
of axis-parallel boxes.
He is also the editor of nearly 20 edited volumes.
Distinguished Service Prize in 1999. In 2001, he won the National Science Foundation
Science and Technology Centers Pioneer Award for "pioneering the science and technology center concept". In 2003, DIMACS held a Conference on Applications of Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science, in honor of Roberts' 60th birthday.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
mathematician
Mathematician
A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
, a professor of mathematics at Rutgers University
Rutgers University
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...
and the director of DIMACS
DIMACS
The Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science is a collaboration between Rutgers University, Princeton University, and the research firms AT&T, Bell Labs, Telcordia, and NEC. It was founded in 1989 with money from the National Science Foundation...
.
Biography
Roberts did his undergraduate studies at Dartmouth CollegeDartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
, and received his Ph.D. from Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
in 1968; his doctoral advisor
Doctoral advisor
A doctoral advisor is an advanced member of a university faculty whose role is to guide a graduate student who is a candidate for a doctorate degree, helping them select coursework, as well as shaping, refining and directing the students' choice of sub-discipline...
was Dana Scott
Dana Scott
Dana Stewart Scott is the emeritus Hillman University Professor of Computer Science, Philosophy, and Mathematical Logic at Carnegie Mellon University; he is now retired and lives in Berkeley, California...
. After holding positions at the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
, RAND
RAND
RAND Corporation is a nonprofit global policy think tank first formed to offer research and analysis to the United States armed forces by Douglas Aircraft Company. It is currently financed by the U.S. government and private endowment, corporations including the healthcare industry, universities...
, and the Institute for Advanced Study
Institute for Advanced Study
The Institute for Advanced Study, located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States, is an independent postgraduate center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It was founded in 1930 by Abraham Flexner...
, he joined the Rutgers faculty in 1972.
He has been vice president of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
The Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics was founded by a small group of mathematicians from academia and industry who met in Philadelphia in 1951 to start an organization whose members would meet periodically to exchange ideas about the uses of mathematics in industry. This meeting led...
twice, in 1984 and 1986, and has been director of DIMACS since 1996.
Research
Roberts' research concerns graph theoryGraph theory
In mathematics and computer science, graph theory is the study of graphs, mathematical structures used to model pairwise relations between objects from a certain collection. A "graph" in this context refers to a collection of vertices or 'nodes' and a collection of edges that connect pairs of...
and combinatorics
Combinatorics
Combinatorics is a branch of mathematics concerning the study of finite or countable discrete structures. Aspects of combinatorics include counting the structures of a given kind and size , deciding when certain criteria can be met, and constructing and analyzing objects meeting the criteria ,...
, and their applications in modeling problems in the social sciences and biology
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
. Among his contributions to pure mathematics, he is known for introducing the concept of boxicity
Boxicity
In graph theory, boxicity is a graph invariant, introduced by Fred S. Roberts in 1969.The boxicity of a graph is the minimum dimension in which a given graph can be represented as an intersection graph of axis-parallel boxes...
, the minimum dimension needed to represent a given undirected graph as an intersection graph
Intersection graph
In the mathematical area of graph theory, an intersection graph is a graph that represents the pattern of intersections of a family of sets. Any graph may be represented as an intersection graph, but some important special classes of graphs may be defined by the types of sets that are used to form...
of axis-parallel boxes.
Books
Roberts is the author or co-author of the following books:- Discrete Mathematical Models, with Applications to Social, Biological and Environmental Problems, Prentice-Hall, 1976, ISBN 9780132141710. Russian translation, Nauka, 1986.
- Graph Theory and its Applications to the Problems of Society, CBMS-NSF Regional Conference Series in Applied Mathematics 29, SIAMSociety for Industrial and Applied MathematicsThe Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics was founded by a small group of mathematicians from academia and industry who met in Philadelphia in 1951 to start an organization whose members would meet periodically to exchange ideas about the uses of mathematics in industry. This meeting led...
, 1987, ISBN 9780898710267. - Measurement Theory, with Applications to Decisionmaking, Utility, and the Social Sciences, Encyclopedia of Mathematics and its Applications 7, Addison-Wesley, 1979, ISBN 9780201135060. Reprinted by Cambridge University Press, 2009.
- Applied Combinatorics, Prentice-Hall, 1984. 2nd edition (with B. Tesman), 2004, ISBN 9780130796035. 3rd edition, Chapman & Hall, 2009. Chinese translation, Pearson Education Asia, 2005 and 2007.
He is also the editor of nearly 20 edited volumes.
Awards and honors
Roberts received the ACM SIGACTACM SIGACT
ACM SIGACT or SIGACT is the Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Algorithms and Computation Theory, whose purpose is support of research in theoretical computer science. It was founded in 1968 by Patrick C. Fischer.-Publications:...
Distinguished Service Prize in 1999. In 2001, he won the National Science Foundation
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...
Science and Technology Centers Pioneer Award for "pioneering the science and technology center concept". In 2003, DIMACS held a Conference on Applications of Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science, in honor of Roberts' 60th birthday.
External links
- Roberts' web site at DIMACS.