Steph van Willigenburg

Associate Professor, University of British Columbia.

Linked to this page you will find my publications, career and honours

Teaching, 2011W Term 2

Math 340: Introduction to Linear Programming
Math 616: Combinatorial Representation Theory

Research Interests

My area of expertise is algebraic combinatorics. Initially I concentrated on descent algebras of Coxeter groups with a particular focus on their multiplicative structure, and the establishment of their basic algebraic structure and representation theory over fields of finite characteristic. 

Subsequently, I worked on Pieri operators on posets that link the diverse areas of Schubert calculus, combinatorics of polytopes, and P-partitions, amongst others. One particular discovery was the duality between peak functions and the cd-index. This led to studying ribbon Schur function equality, generalising this study to skew Schur function equality and applying the knowledge gleaned to the study of Schur positivity.

Most recently, I have been studying a natural quasisymmetric refinement of Schur functions that reflect many of the properties displayed by Schur functions.

Keywords and phrases Coxeter group, representation theory, graded operation on posets, quasisymmetric function, Schur function, Schur P function, Macdonald polynomial.

Students

Undergrad research: Kristin Shaw (2003, 2004, 2005), Chris Ryan (2005), Josh Fiddler (2006), Andrew Brown (2007), Farzin Barekat (2008).

MSc: Matt Morin (2003-5), Vasu Tewari (2009-11), Caleb Cheek (2010- ).

PhD: Matt Morin (2005-2010), Vasu Tewari (2011-).

Postdoc (joint): Kevin Purbhoo (2006-7),  Eric Fusy (2008-9),  Kurt Luoto (2009-11),  Mahdad Khatirinejad (2010-11), Ed Richmond (2011- ).

Conference Organisation

  • UBC Discrete Maths Seminar
  • A+E Combinatorics reading seminar Friday 1.30pm Math 126. Currently reading "Algebraic Combinatorics and Coinvariant Spaces" by F. Bergeron.

Contact Information

Email:steph (at math splotch ubc followed by another one ca)
Phone:+1 604 822-2630
Fax:+1 604 822-6074

Paper mail:

Department of Mathematics, University of British Columbia, 1984 Mathematics Road, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z2, Canada. 

Other 

My husband is the medieval historian Niall Christie.
 
Stephanie van Willigenburg January 2012
Borders courtesy of Eos Web Art