Self-portrait photograph Ian Murray Wanless (born 7 December 1969 in

Canberra Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's list of cities in Australia, largest in ...

, Australia) is an Australian mathematician. He is a professor in the School of Mathematics at

Monash University Monash University () is a public university, public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Named after World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, Australia. His research area is

combinatorics Combinatorics is an area of mathematics primarily concerned with counting, both as a means and as an end to obtaining results, and certain properties of finite structures. It is closely related to many other areas of mathematics and has many ...

, principally

Latin square Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area around Rome, Italy. Through the expansion o ...

graph theory In mathematics and computer science, graph theory is the study of ''graph (discrete mathematics), graphs'', which are mathematical structures used to model pairwise relations between objects. A graph in this context is made up of ''Vertex (graph ...

and matrix permanents. Wanless completed his secondary education at Phillip College and represented Australia at the

International Mathematical Olympiad The International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) is a mathematical olympiad for pre-university students, and is the oldest of the International Science Olympiads. It is widely regarded as the most prestigious mathematical competition in the wor ...

in Cuba in 1987. Wanless received a Ph.D. in mathematics from the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

in 1998. His thesis "Permanents, matchings and Latin rectangles" was supervised by Brendan McKay. He held a postdoctoral research position at

Melbourne University The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state of Victoria. Its ...

(1998–1999), before becoming a junior research fellow at

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church (, the temple or house, ''wikt:aedes, ædes'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by Henry V ...

(1999–2003). He then had a research position at Australian National University (2003–2004) before spending 2005 as a senior lecturer at

Charles Darwin University Charles Darwin University (CDU) is an Australian public university with two campuses in Darwin and six satellite campuses in metropolitan and regional areas of the Northern Territory. It was established in 2003 after the merger of Northern Ter ...

. Since 2006 he has been at Monash University, where he was promoted to professor in 2014. He has been awarded distinguished fellowships from the

Australian Research Council The Australian Research Council (ARC) is the primary non-medical research funding agency of the Australian Government, distributing more than in grants each year. The Council was established by the ''Australian Research Council Act 2001'', ...

including a QEII fellowship (2006–2010) and a Future Fellowship (2011–2014). The

Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications The Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications (ICA) is an international scientific organization formed in 1990 to increase the visibility and influence of the Combinatorics, combinatorial community. In pursuit of this goal, the ICA sponsors ...

awarded him its Kirkman Medal in 2002 and its Hall Medal in 2008. The Australian Institute of Policy and Science awarded him a Victorian Young Tall Poppy Award in 2008. The

Australian Mathematical Society The Australian Mathematical Society (AustMS) was founded in 1956 and is the national society of the mathematics profession in Australia. One of the society's listed purposes is to promote the cause of mathematics in the community by representing ...

awarded him its medal in 2009. Wanless is a life member of the

Combinatorial Mathematics Society of Australasia The Combinatorial Mathematics Society of Australasia (CMSA) is a professional society of mathematicians working in the field of combinatorics. It is the primary combinatorics society for Australasia, consisting of Australia, New Zealand and neigh ...

(CMSA). He has served two terms as the CMSA's President (2007–09 and 2014). He is an editor in chief of the

Electronic Journal of Combinatorics The ''Electronic Journal of Combinatorics'' is a peer-reviewed open access scientific journal covering research in combinatorial mathematics. The journal was established in 1994 by Herbert Wilf (University of Pennsylvania) and Neil Calkin (Geor ...

and is on the editorial board of several other journals including the Journal of Combinatorial Designs. Wanless is the coauthor (with Charles Colbourn and Jeff Dinitz) of the chapter on Latin squares in the CRC Handbook of Combinatorial Designs and the author of the chapter on matrix permanents in the CRC Handbook of Linear Algebra.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wanless, Ian Australian mathematicians International Mathematical Olympiad participants Academic staff of Monash University Living people 1969 births People educated at Canberra College Australian National University alumni People from Canberra