People

Professor Seymour's primary research lies in discrete mathematics, and graph theory in particular. While his work is in pure mathematics and for the most part is not motivated by applications, graph theory itself is very relevant to a number of networking situations. Much of Seymour's work has focused on the four-colour theorem and the theory of minors of graphs, while his recent efforts have largely been directed toward the structure of graphs with certain induced subgraphs forbidden, such as perfect graphs, even-hole-free graphs, and claw-free graphs. Seymour's work on perfect graphs recently led him to co-publish a proof of the "strong perfect graph conjecture", a well-known problem that has been open for more than fifty years.

A native of England, Seymour studied at Oxford University (Exeter College), where he received his D.Phil. in 1975. He took postdoctoral appointments at the University College of Swansea, Oxford University again (Merton College), and the University of Waterloo; then in 1980 he accepted a position as professor at Ohio State University, and moved again to Bellcore in 1983. During this time he also worked as an adjunct professor for Rutgers and Waterloo before coming to Princeton as a visiting professor in 1995 and as a full professor in 1996. Seymour also serves as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Graph Theory and as an editor of Combinatorica and of Journal of Combinatorial Theory (Ser. B).

Seymour has a joint appointment with the mathematics department and teaches an undergraduate course in graph theory and graduate courses in discrete mathematics.