Professor Patric Östergard honorary doctor of the Univesity of Pécs since 7 November 2013.
Curriculum Vitae
- Education and Degrees:
- Doctor of Science (Technology), Teknillinen korkeakoulu (TKK), Espoo, Finland, Computer Science and Engineering, 1993
- Licentiate of Science (Technology), TKK, Computer Science and Engineering, 1992
- Master of Science (Technology), TKK, Electrical Engineering, 1990
Current Position:
- Professor in Information Theory, TKK and Aalto University, 01.08.2000-
Long-Term Academic Visits:
- Universitat Bayreuth, Germany, 2010
- Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands, 1995-1996
Administrative Leadership:
- Vice Head, Department of Communications and Networking, Aalto University, 2011-
- De facto chair, Nordic Combinatorial Conference, steering committee, 2008-
- Head, Communications Labo
- ratory, TKK, 2006-07
Awards and Honours:
- Kirkman Medal, Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications, 1996
Academic Merits:
- Published 1 monograph, 153 peer-reviewed scienti c articles, and 2 patents
- Presented invited keynote lectures at 13 international conferences
- Reviewed articles for 55 scienti c journals
- Advised/supervised 8 doctoral dissertations, including 2 prize-winning theses
- Acted as pre-examiner/opponent/committee member for 11 doctoral dissertations
- Reviewed academic applications/positions for 8 countries
Editorial Board Membership:
- Journal of Combinatorial Designs, Editor-in-Chief, 2006-; Editor, 2000-05
Membership in Scientifc Societies:
- Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications, Fellow
- Finnish Mathematical Society, Member
Inaugural speech
My first contacts with Hungarian science were my encounters with Paul Erdős at the annual Southeastern combinatorics conference in Florida in the early 1990s. Unfortunately, my scientifc career did not start until Paul's was almost over, but, 20 years later, I can still vividly remember his legendary talks on his favourite unresolved problems, where he often offered prizes for solutions. I never wrote a paper with Paul, but my Erdős number is 2.
The work of Paul Erdős and many other Hungarian scholars that I have later met during my career - far too many to be listed here, not to mention those whose papers I have read - have without doubt been a source of inspiration for myself. Still, I have taken a different path than in traditional combinatorics by relying heavily on computers in my attempts to break new mathematical ground. Various success stories during my career have convinced me that I am on a good track, where, however, my Finnish modesty helps me to stay humble.
It is a great honor for me to be conferred this hononary title.Today, 40 years after the famous computer-aided proof of the four color theorem - saying that four colors suffice to color the regions of any map so that no two adjacent regions have the same color - the use of computers is still to some extent controversial among mathematicians. I will not go into a deeper philosophical analysis of this issue. Let me just mention that in my joint work with Hungarian scholars - Gerzson Kéri, Ferenc Szöllősi, and Sándor Szabó - the collaborators have (as far as I can see) shared my enthusiasm for computational techniques. Moreover, the Finnish organization CSC very recently granted a joint project between Aalto University and University of Pécs a substantial amount of CPU time in their supercomputers.