David Bevan is an English mathematician, computer scientist and software developer. He is known for Bevan's theorem, which gives the asymptotic enumeration of grid classes of permutations and for his work on enumerating the class of permutations avoiding the pattern 1324. He is also known for devising weighted reference counting, an approach to computer

memory management Memory management is a form of resource management applied to computer memory. The essential requirement of memory management is to provide ways to dynamically allocate portions of memory to programs at their request, and free it for reuse when ...

that is suitable for use in

distributed systems A distributed system is a system whose components are located on different networked computers, which communicate and coordinate their actions by passing messages to one another from any system. Distributed computing is a field of computer sci ...

Work and research

Bevan is a lecturer in

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 a ...

in the department of Mathematics and Statistics at the

University of Strathclyde The University of Strathclyde ( gd, Oilthigh Shrath Chluaidh) is a public research university located in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded in 1796 as the Andersonian Institute, it is Glasgow's second-oldest university, having received its royal char ...

. He has degrees in mathematics and computer science from the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world's second-oldest university in contin ...

and a degree in theology from the London School of Theology. He received his PhD in mathematics from

The Open University The Open University (OU) is a British Public university, public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by List of universities in the United Kingdom by enrolment, number of students. The majority of the OU's underg ...

in 2015; his thesis, ''On the growth of permutation classes'', was supervised by Robert Brignall. In 1987, as a research scientist at

GEC GEC or Gec may refer to: Education * Gedo Education Committee, in Somalia * Glen Eira College, in Caulfield East, Victoria, Australia * Goa Engineering College, India * Government Engineering College (disambiguation) * Guild for Exceptional ...

's Hirst Research Centre in Wembley, he developed an approach to computer

, called weighted reference counting, that is suitable for use in

. During the 1990s, while working for the Summer Institute of Linguistics in

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

, he developed a computer program, called ''FindPhone'', that was widely used by field linguists to analyse phonetic data in order to understand the

phonology Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...

of minority languages. While employed by

Pitney Bowes Pitney Bowes Inc. is an American technology company most known for its postage meters and other mailing equipment and services, and with expansions into e-commerce, software, and other technologies. The company was founded by Arthur Pitney, who ...

, he was a major contributor to the development of the FreeType text rendering library. Bevan's mathematical research has concerned areas of

enumerative combinatorics Enumerative combinatorics is an area of combinatorics that deals with the number of ways that certain patterns can be formed. Two examples of this type of problem are counting combinations and counting permutations. More generally, given an infin ...

, particularly in relation to permutation classes. He established that the growth rate of a monotone grid class of permutations is equal to the square of the spectral radius of a related

bipartite graph In the mathematical field of graph theory, a bipartite graph (or bigraph) is a graph whose vertices can be divided into two disjoint and independent sets U and V, that is every edge connects a vertex in U to one in V. Vertex sets U and V ar ...

. He has also determined bounds on the growth rate of the class of permutations avoiding the pattern 1324. In the Acknowledgements sections of his journal articles, he often includes the Latin phrase Soli Deo gloria.

Selected publications

* * * *

References

External links

David Bevan's page at the University of Strathclyde
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bevan, David Combinatorialists 21st-century English mathematicians English mathematicians English computer scientists Academics of the University of Strathclyde Alumni of The Queen's College, Oxford Alumni of the London School of Theology Alumni of the Open University 1961 births Living people