Steven Kay Butler (born May 16, 1977) is an American mathematician specializing in

graph theory In mathematics, graph theory is the study of ''graphs'', which are mathematical structures used to model pairwise relations between objects. A graph in this context is made up of '' vertices'' (also called ''nodes'' or ''points'') which are conne ...

and

combinatorics Combinatorics is an area of mathematics primarily concerned with counting, both as a means and an end in obtaining results, and certain properties of finite structures. It is closely related to many other areas of mathematics and has many appl ...

. He is a Morrill Professor and the Barbara J. Janson Professor in Mathematics at

Iowa State University Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a public land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, Iowa State became one of the n ...

Education and career

Butler earned his master's degree at

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day ...

in 2003. His master's thesis was titled ''Bounding the Number of Graphs Containing Very Long Induced Paths''. He completed a doctorate at the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...

in 2008, authoring the dissertation ''Eigenvalues and Structures of Graphs'', advised by Fan Chung. Upon completing his postdoctoral studies at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

, Butler joined the

faculty in 2011. In 2015, Butler became the 512th (and so far final) person to have an Erdős number of 1, when he published a paper with

Paul Erdős Paul Erdős ( hu, Erdős Pál ; 26 March 1913 – 20 September 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 ...

and Ronald Graham on

Egyptian fraction An Egyptian fraction is a finite sum of distinct unit fractions, such as \frac+\frac+\frac. That is, each fraction in the expression has a numerator equal to 1 and a denominator that is a positive integer, and all the denominators differ from each ...

s. In 2017, Butler was named the Barbara J. Janson Professor in Mathematics, and to a Morrill Professorship in 2022.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Butler, Steve 1977 births Living people Graph theorists 21st-century American mathematicians Brigham Young University alumni University of California, San Diego alumni