Simona Boyadzhiyska
Postdoc at the University of Birmingham
About me
I am a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Birmingham, working in extremal combinatorics. My supervisor is Dr. Allan Lo. Much of my work is in Ramsey theory, but I enjoy thinking about other problems as well. I am supported by the EPSRC grant "Ramsey theory: an extremal perspective."
Previously, I was at the Freie Universität Berlin, where I completed my PhD under the supervision of Professor Tibor Szabó in 2022. The title of my thesis was "Minimal Ramsey graphs, orthogonal Latin squares, and hyperplane coverings." I was a member of the Berlin Mathematical School and the RTG "Facets of Complexity."
Office: Watson 315
Email: s.s.boyadzhiyska at bham dot ac dot uk
The Cyrillic spelling of my name is Симона Бояджийска. Here is how to pronounce it.
Research
You can find my Google Scholar profile here.
Publications
Ramsey simplicity of random graphs (with D. Clemens, S. Das, and P. Gupta)
Combinatorics, Probability and Computing (to appear)Ramsey equivalence for asymmetric pairs of graphs (with D. Clemens, P. Gupta, and J. Rollin)
SIAM Journal on Discrete Mathematics 38 (1), 55-74Covering grids with multiplicity (with A. Bishnoi, S. Das, and Y. den Bakker)
Combinatorial Theory 3 (3)Subspace coverings with multiplicities (with A. Bishnoi, S. Das, and T. Mészáros)
Combinatorics, Probability and Computing 32 (5), 782-795On the minimum degree of minimal Ramsey graphs for cliques versus cycles (with A. Bishnoi, D. Clemens, P. Gupta, T. Lesgourgues, and A. Liebenau)
SIAM Journal on Discrete Mathematics 37 (1), 25-50Minimal Ramsey graphs with many vertices of small degree (with D. Clemens and P. Gupta)
SIAM Journal on Discrete Mathematics 36 (3), 1503-1528Enumerating extensions of mutually orthogonal Latin squares (with S. Das and T. Szabó)
Designs, Codes and Cryptography 88, 2187-2206Classifications of definable subsets (with K. Lange, A. Raz, R. Scanlon, J. Wallbaum, and X. Zhang)
Algebra and Logic 58 (5), 383-404Interval orders with two interval lengths (with G. Isaak and A. N. Trenk)
Discrete Applied Mathematics 267, 52-63A simple proof characterizing interval orders with interval lengths between 1 and k (with G. Isaak and A. N. Trenk)
Involve, a Journal of Mathematics 11 (5), 893-900
Preprints
Ramsey goodness of k-uniform paths, or the lack thereof (with A. Lo)
On the use of senders for asymmetric tuples of cliques in Ramsey theory (with T. Lesgourgues)
Conference proceedings
Tight path, what is it (Ramsey-) good for? Absolutely (almost) nothing! (with A. Lo)
European Conference on Combinatorics, Graph Theory and Applications (Eurocomb '23)Fixed-Point Cycles and Approximate EFX Allocations (with B. A. Berendsohn and L. Kozma)
47th International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS 2022)
Teaching
In Autumn '23 I taught one quarter of the Advanced Topics in Combinatorics course for fourth-year students at UoB. The topic was "Extremal combinatorics meets finite geometry." I also organized the Combinatorics Reading Group in the same semester, focusing on the Container Method.
In the past, I have been a TA for Discrete Mathematics I at FU Berlin and a tutor for various courses in Mathematics and Computer Science during my undergraduate studies at Wellesley College. I have also assisted with the Discrete Mathematics student seminars at FU Berlin, helping students prepare for their talks.
Talks
Past
Here is a list of my most recent talks:
03.11.2023 - Ramsey goodness of loose paths
An Autumn Day of Combinatorics, Birmingham, UK27.09.2023 - Ramsey goodness of loose paths
Minisymposium "Extremal and Probabilistic Combinatorics" at the Annual Conference of the German Mathematical Society (DMV), Ilmenau, Germany31.08.2023 - Tight path, what is it (Ramsey-)good for? Absolutely (almost) nothing!
Eurocomb '23 in Prague, Czechia30.06.2023 - Covering real grids with multiplicity
Combinatorics Seminar, University of Warwick18.05.2023 - Covering real grids with multiplicity
Combinatorics Seminar, University of Birmingham04.05.2023 - Tight path, what is it (Ramsey-)good for? Absolutely (almost) nothing!
UCL Workshop in Extremal and Probabilistic Combinatorics23.03.2023 - Covering real grids with multiplicity
LSE Seminar on Combinatorics, Games and Optimisation
Activities and outreach
Earlier this year, I co-organized the Spring Day of Combinatorics at the University of Birmingham together with Allan Lo.
During my Master's and PhD at the Berlin Mathematical School, I served as a Student Representative for a year, co-organized the 7th BMS Student Conference, and was involved in the organization of the "What is...?" student seminar.
I'm passionate about teaching mathematics and enjoy participating in outreach activities and helping people learn a bit about what research in mathematics is like. Together with my colleagues from FU Berlin, I co-organized workshops (in German!) for Girls'Day in 2019 (on proofs of impossibility), 2021 (on randomness and human intuition), and 2022 (on positional games). In 2022, we also hosted two high-school students for an afternoon, as part of their "Praktikum."