John Adrian Bondy (born 1944 in London) is a retired English mathematician, known for his work in

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 ...

and

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 ...

Career

Bondy received his Ph.D. in

from the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

in 1969. His advisor was

Dominic Welsh James Anthony Dominic Welsh (known professionally as D.J.A. Welsh, 29 August 1938 – 30 November 2023) was an English mathematician and emeritus professor of Oxford University's Mathematical Institute. He was an expert in matroid theory, the c ...

. Between 1969 and 1994, Bondy was ''Professor of Graph Theory'' at the

University of Waterloo The University of Waterloo (UWaterloo, UW, or Waterloo) is a Public university, public research university located in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is on of land adjacent to uptown Waterloo and Waterloo Park. The university also op ...

in Canada, and then, until his retirement, at

Université Lyon 1 Claude Bernard University Lyon 1 (, UCBL) is one of the three public universities of Lyon, France. It is named after the French physiologist Claude Bernard and specialises in science and technology, medicine, and sports science. It was establis ...

in France. From 1976, he was managing editor, and, between 1979 and 2004, co-editor-in-chief (together with U. S. R. Murty) of

Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Series B The ''Journal of Combinatorial Theory'', Series A and Series B, are mathematical journals specializing in combinatorics and related areas. They are published by Elsevier. ''Series A'' is concerned primarily with structures, designs, and applicati ...

. Throughout his career, Bondy has (co-)authored over 100 publications with 51 co-authors, including the widely influential textbook ''Graph Theory with Applications'' (with U. S. R. Murty), and supervised 12 Ph.D. students. His

Erdős number The Erdős number () describes the "collaborative distance" between mathematician Paul Erdős and another person, as measured by authorship of mathematical papers. The same principle has been applied in other fields where a particular individual ...

is 1. Bondy was dismissed from his tenured position at the University of Waterloo in 1995, after 25 years in which he had been a major contributor to the renown of the University's Department of Combinatorics and Optimization. The reasons for his dismissal centered on ''"Bondy's acceptance of a teaching post in France, and the acceptability of someone who is on UW's faculty payroll holding a full-time job elsewhere."'' Protesting the decision,

Paul Erdős Paul Erdős ( ; 26March 191320September 1996) was a Hungarian mathematician. He was one of the most prolific mathematicians and producers of mathematical conjectures of the 20th century. pursued and proposed problems in discrete mathematics, g ...

returned his honorary doctorate to the University of Waterloo, and

Vašek Chvátal Vašek is both a Czech surname and masculine given name (diminutive of Václav Václav () or rarely Vácslav is a Czech name, Czech male given name. It is among the most common Czech names. The Latinized form of the name is Wenceslaus and the Polish ...

resigned from his position of ''Adjunct Professor'' at the Department of Combinatorics and Optimization.

Personal life

Bondy has a passion for

photography Photography is the visual arts, art, application, and practice of creating images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is empl ...

, having taken pictures since his childhood. In the 1980s, he regularly exhibited his work, most notably at the ''Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery'' in

Kitchener, Ontario Kitchener is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario, about west of Toronto. It is one of three cities that make up the Regional Municipality of Waterloo and is the regional Administrative centre, seat. Kitchener was known as Berlin until a ...

. In 2010, Bondy founded the non-profit association ''Mind's Eye'' with the aim ''"to reflect upon the conceptual links between mathematics and photography."'' In 2012, he opened a photo gallery with the same name on the

Rue Saint-Jacques, Paris The Rue Saint-Jacques () is a street in the Latin Quarter of Paris. History Formerly lying along the ''cardo'' of Roman Lutetia, this street was a main axial road of medieval Paris, as the buildings that still front it attest. It is the histori ...

. Between 2012 and 2022, ''Mind's Eye / Galerie Adrian Bondy'' has hosted 42 exhibitions with works of 27 artists, including

John Claridge John Claridge (born 1944) is a British photographer, known for his work in advertising, black and white portraits in Soho and street photographs in the East End of London. Early life Claridge was born in Plaistow, Essex. His father worked i ...

and

Jean Dréville Jean Dréville (20 September 1906 – 5 March 1997) was a French film director. He directed more than 40 films between 1928 and 1969. Selected filmography * (1928) * '' A Man of Gold'' (1934) * '' The Chess Player'' (1938) * '' White Nigh ...

Selected publications

* . * . * . * . * .

Notes

References

* * * * * .

External links

Critique of the dismissal
by

Jeffrey Shallit Jeffrey Outlaw Shallit (born October 17, 1957) is an American computer scientist and mathematician. He is an active number theorist and a noted critic of intelligent design. He is married to Anna Lubiw, also a computer scientist. Early life ...