University of Memphis Honors Renowned Mathematician Ralph Faudree With Professorship

February 2, 2016 - The University of Memphis is honoring a renowned mathematician, provost and interim president with the Ralph Faudree Assistant Professorship. The non-tenure-track appointment at the Department of Mathematical Sciences is a post-doctoral position for researchers in the field of combinatorics and graph theory. It is funded in part by a donation from Pat Faudree in memory of her husband, Dr. Ralph Faudree, who died last year.

Faudree joined the UofM in 1971. Throughout his academic career, he maintained an active and prolific research program in the areas of graphical Ramsey theory and Hamiltonian theory of graphs, with more than 250 research papers to his credit.

He enjoyed an international reputation and served as a visiting professor at numerous universities, including The University of Twente in the Netherlands, the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, the University of Paris, the University of Singapore and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. It is at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences that Faudree cemented his relationship with Dr. Paul Erdös, one of the 20th century's most prolific and respected mathematicians. Their collaboration led to more than 45 joint articles in graph theory. After Erdös' death, Faudree continued the work they had begun together, collaborating with mathematicians in both Hungary and the United States. He also helped to perpetuate the work by co-sponsoring the Erdös lecture series at the University of Memphis.

In 2005, Faudree received what is considered the top award for mathematicians, the Euler Medal, from the Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications.

Appointments for the Faudree Assistant Professorship are for two years, with an extension to a third year based on demonstration of satisfactory performance in teaching and research. Preference is given to candidates in the area of combinatorics and graph theory who have received their PhD within the last three years, have an outstanding research record and demonstrated teaching success.

Contact: Gabrielle Maxey
901.678.2843
gmaxey@memphis.edu