Before I went to graduate school and became a commutative algebraist, I did a little work in graph theory. It was fun! I proved theorems! My mentor/coauthor Josh Laison provided a wonderful introduction to the fun inherent in doing research.
Well, roughly a decade later, I found myself at an Algebraic Combinatorics conference in honor of Chris Godsil’s 65th birthday (whose book with Royle was my introduction to Algebraic Graph Theory almost *exactly* 10 years ago). It’s exciting to see that some of the work we did is still relevant.
It’s also a lovely drive to get to U. Waterloo from Hamilton College. In fact, on the way home, I spent a night camping on Nairne Island at the Upper Canada Migratory Bird Sanctuary. It was the maiden voyage for my new solo tent, and I had plenty of math to think about in the peace and quiet!
