Dragan Marušič (born 1953,

Koper Koper (; it, Capodistria, hr, Kopar) is the fifth largest city in Slovenia. Located in the Istrian region in the southwestern part of the country, approximately five kilometres () south of the border with Italy and 20 kilometres () from Triest ...

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

) is a Slovene

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

. Marušič obtained his BSc in technical mathematics from the

University of Ljubljana The University of Ljubljana ( sl, Univerza v Ljubljani, , la, Universitas Labacensis), often referred to as UL, is the oldest and largest university in Slovenia. It has approximately 39,000 enrolled students. History Beginnings Although certain ...

in 1976, and his PhD from the

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as University College, Reading, a University of Oxford extension college. The institution received the power to grant its own degrees in 192 ...

in 1981 under the supervision of

Crispin Nash-Williams Crispin St John Alvah Nash-Williams FRSE (19 December 1932 – 20 January 2001) was a British mathematician. His research interest was in the field of discrete mathematics, especially graph theory. Biography Nash-Williams was born on 19 Dece ...

. Marušič has published extensively, and has supervised seven PhD students (as of 2013). He served as the third

rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...

of the

University of Primorska University of Primorska (Slovenian ''Univerza na Primorskem'', Italian ''Università del Litorale'') is by age and size the third university in Slovenia. It is located in Koper, Izola, and Portorož and is named for the Slovenian Littoral region ...

from 2011-2019, a university he lobbied to have established in his home town of

. His research focuses on topics in

algebraic graph theory Algebraic graph theory is a branch of mathematics in which algebraic methods are applied to problems about graphs. This is in contrast to geometric, combinatoric, or algorithmic approaches. There are three main branches of algebraic graph t ...

, particularly the

symmetry Symmetry (from grc, συμμετρία "agreement in dimensions, due proportion, arrangement") in everyday language refers to a sense of harmonious and beautiful proportion and balance. In mathematics, "symmetry" has a more precise definit ...

graph Graph may refer to: Mathematics *Graph (discrete mathematics), a structure made of vertices and edges **Graph theory, the study of such graphs and their properties *Graph (topology), a topological space resembling a graph in the sense of discre ...

s and the action of

finite group Finite is the opposite of infinite. It may refer to: * Finite number (disambiguation) * Finite set, a set whose cardinality (number of elements) is some natural number * Finite verb, a verb form that has a subject, usually being inflected or marked ...

s on combinatorial objects. He is regarded as the founder of the Slovenian school of research in

and

permutation group In mathematics, a permutation group is a group ''G'' whose elements are permutations of a given set ''M'' and whose group operation is the composition of permutations in ''G'' (which are thought of as bijective functions from the set ''M'' to it ...

Education and career

From 1968 to 1972 Marušič attended gymnasium in

. He studied undergraduate mathematics at the

, graduating in 1976. He completed his PhD in 1981 in England, at the

under the supervision of

. After completing a post-doctoral fellowship at the

in 1983, Marušič spent a year teaching high school mathematics in

. He worked for one year at the

University of Minnesota Duluth The University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) is a public university in Duluth, Minnesota. It is part of the University of Minnesota system and offers 16 bachelor's degrees in 88 majors, graduate programs in 25 different fields, and a two-year progr ...

as an assistant professor, and then spent three years at the

University of California, Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California syste ...

, from 1985-1988. In 1988, he returned to Slovenia to work at the

, where he rose quickly through the ranks, becoming a full professor in 1994. He also held the post of vice-rector of student affairs there from 1989-1991. In 1991-92 he spent a year as a

Fulbright scholar The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...

at the

. Marušič maintains his post at the University of Ljubljana, although he has also held an appointment at the

since 2004, shortly after its founding. He has increasingly devoted his time to the newer university, where he established the Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences, and Information Technologies (UP FAMNIT). He served as the dean of that faculty from 2007-2011. He was elected in 2011 as the third

of the University of Primorska, a position which he held until 2019. Marušič has supervised seven PhD students, and has supervised or co-supervised six post-doctoral fellows, in addition to numerous master's and honours students. He is one of the two founding editors and editors-in-chief (with

Tomaž Pisanski Tomaž (Tomo) Pisanski (born 24 May 1949 in Ljubljana, Yugoslavia, which is now in Slovenia) is a Slovenian mathematician working mainly in discrete mathematics and graph theory. He is considered by many Slovenian mathematicians to be the "father ...

) of the journal ''

Ars Mathematica Contemporanea ''Ars Mathematica Contemporanea'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering discrete mathematics in connection with other branches of mathematics. It is published by the University of Primorska together with the Society of Mathemati ...

''.

Achievements and honours

Marušič is regarded as the founder of the Slovenian school of research in

and

s. In 2002 he received the Zois Award, the highest scientific award in Slovenia, for his achievements in the field of graph theory and algebra. Since 2010, he has been a member of the committee that selects the Zois Award recipients, as well as the recipients of other scientific honours from the government of Slovenia.

Research

In his research, Marušič has focused on the actions of

s on

graphs Graph may refer to: Mathematics *Graph (discrete mathematics), a structure made of vertices and edges **Graph theory, the study of such graphs and their properties *Graph (topology), a topological space resembling a graph in the sense of discre ...

. Some of his major contributions have been on the topics of the existence of semiregular automorphisms (see

group action In mathematics, a group action on a space is a group homomorphism of a given group into the group of transformations of the space. Similarly, a group action on a mathematical structure is a group homomorphism of a group into the automorphism ...

for an explanation of this) of

vertex-transitive graph In the mathematical field of graph theory, a vertex-transitive graph is a graph in which, given any two vertices and of , there is some automorphism :f : G \to G\ such that :f(v_1) = v_2.\ In other words, a graph is vertex-transitive i ...

s, the existence of

Hamiltonian path In the mathematical field of graph theory, a Hamiltonian path (or traceable path) is a path in an undirected or directed graph that visits each vertex exactly once. A Hamiltonian cycle (or Hamiltonian circuit) is a cycle that visits each vertex ...

s and cycles in vertex-transitive graphs, and the structures of

semi-symmetric graph In the mathematical field of graph theory, a semi-symmetric graph is an undirected graph that is edge-transitive and regular, but not vertex-transitive. In other words, a graph is semi-symmetric if each vertex has the same number of incident edg ...

s and half-transitive graphs. With co-authors, he proved that the

Gray graph Grey (more common in British English) or gray (more common in American English) is an intermediate color between black and white. It is a neutral or achromatic color, meaning literally that it is "without color", because it can be composed o ...

on 54 vertices is the smallest cubic semi-symmetric graph. He has well over 100 publications.

Personal life

Marušič is married and has two sons. His brother, Dorijan Marušič was the Minister of Health for Slovenia.

External links

Selected publications

* * * * * * * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marusic, Dragan 1953 births Living people Graph theorists Alumni of the University of Reading 20th-century Slovenian mathematicians 21st-century Slovenian mathematicians Academic staff of the University of Primorska People from Koper Academic staff of the University of Ljubljana University of Ljubljana alumni Yugoslav mathematicians