Dr. Clifford D. Smyth

• Department of Mathematics and Statistics
• Associate Professor, 2014

Graph Theory, by Ronald Gould

Mathematicians are the naturalists who study the forms lurking in mathematical jungles and oceans. Mathematics is the poetry of the unexpected laws they find hidden in that chaos, secretly governing it. It is the nature of this game of discovery that if one makes the assumptions one made, then wherever or whenever one is, those same laws must follow. For this reason, one can say that what fully comes into the light are truths of the highest order, independent of the universe itself.

It is only natural that those of us who dedicate our lives to a thing must think it very special, or else why do it? I am no exception and, with a playful tone that hopefully lets you in on the grand joke, I will say that my field of study, discrete mathematics, is the most special of all the beautiful grains of sand that we find!

In college, in 1990, almost twenty-five years ago, I studied Ronald Gould's book, "Graph Theory" for a course. I had long since decided to become a research mathematician. However, it was through reading this book that I decided I would try to contribute to discrete mathematics over the rest of my life.

I owe a lot to my influences and I can only hope to inspire students to find what calls to them.