Tim Penttila

Other academic interests:
Theoretical computer science, mathematical physics, bioinformatics, history of mathematics and history of science.

I am a professor in the Department of Mathematics at CSU.
I moved here from the University of Western Australia in late December, 2006.

Teaching

Fall 2011
M425 History of Mathematics Lectures 4MWF
M 301 Introduction to Combinatorial Theory Lectures 2MWF

Students:

Luke Bayens who's working towards a Ph. D. with me on problems in finite geometry, including those about groups of hyperovals, flag-transitive Laguerre planes and hemisystems of Hermitian varieties.
Eric Nelson who's working towards a Ph. D. with me on problems in finite geometry, including those about transitive BLT-sets.
Elizabeth Scott-Janda who's working towards a Ph. D. with me on groups of generalized quadrangles. Elizabeth was formerly Bob Liebler's student.
Liz Lane-Harvard who's working towards a Ph. D. with me on finite geometry.

I am always looking for graduate students.
Of my former students listed below, Rebecca Gower, Katrina Hicks, Nick Gill and Ranga Muhandiramge completed doctorates in Queensland, Oxford, Cambridge and Western Australia, and Nicholas Hamilton, Ivano Pinneri, Tim Boykett, Blair Williams, Maska Law, John Bamberg, Rebecca Gower and Nick Gill had postdoctoral positions in Gent(Belgium), Rome(Italy), Linz(Austria), London(England), Rome(Italy), Gent(Belgium), Oxford(England) and Bristol(England) respectively. Shane Kelly has recently completed a Masters in algebraic geometry in France (and Italy), and is now working towards a doctorate at ANU, Canberra. My former students, Nicholas Hamilton and John Bamberg, won the Kirkman medal of the Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications, as did my research associate, Matthew Brown. In 1996, I won the Hall medal of the Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications for my research.

Former Students:

Ph. D.
Cayla McBee Thesis : Some topics in combinatorial phylogenetics(2010)CSU
John Bamberg (jointly supervised with Cheryl Praeger) Thesis : Innately transitive groups (2003)UWA
Maska Law Thesis : Flocks, generalised quadrangles and translation planes from BLT-sets (2003)UWA
Blair Williams Thesis : Ovoids of hyperbolic and parabolic spaces (1998)UWA
Tim Boykett (jointly supervised with Gunter Pilz, Johannes Kepler Universitaet, Linz, Austria) Thesis : Algebraic aspects of reversible computation (1996)UWA
Ivano Pinneri Thesis : Flocks, generalised quadrangles and hyperovals (1996)UWA
Nicholas Hamilton Thesis : Maximal arcs in finite projective planes and associated structures in projective spaces (1995)UWA

Masters
Andrew Hudson Thesis : A class of translation planes (2009)CSU
Eric Nelson Thesis : Two-intersection sets with respect to hyperplanes in projective spaces (2008)CSU
Honours
Adam Wisseman Thesis : Primitive permutation groups (2010)CSU
Luke Bayens Thesis : Hyperovals and their groups (2006)UWA
Shane Kelly(jointly supervised with Michael Giudici).
Thesis : Tight sets and m-ovoids in polar spaces (2005)UWA
Ranga Muhandiramge (jointly supervised with Jingbo Wang)
Thesis : Spin Adapted Configuration Interaction Study of N-electron Quantum Dots (2003)UWA
Danijela Cvoro Thesis : Poincare's theorem for compact polygons(2000)UWA
Nick Gill Thesis : Galois theory and orthogonal geometry(1998)UWA
Maska Law Thesis : The Klein correspondence (1997) UWA
Kenneth Phillips Thesis : Ovals, conics and Segre's theorem(1997)UWA
Nicholas Hamilton Thesis : Group representation theory and applications to quantum mechanics (1991)UWA
Ivano Pinneri Thesis : Propositional calculus of quantum mechanics (1990)UWA
Katrina Hicks (jointly supervised with Michael Alder) Thesis : Automata (1990)UWA
Rebecca Gower Thesis : Finite Generalized Quadrangles (1989)UWA

Honorary students
Michel Lavrauw, Eindhoven, Netherlands (2001)
Elisabeth Kuijken, Gent, Belgium (2002)
Rocco Trombetti, Napoli, Italy (2002)


Research associates:
Cheryl Praeger Australian Research Council Australian Professorial Fellow (2007-11)
Michael Giudici Australian Research Council Australian Research Fellow (2007-11)
John Bamberg Australian Research Council Australian Postdoctoral Fellow (2004-6)
Matthew Brown Australian Research Council Senior Research Associate (2003-5)
Australian Research Council Research Associate (1998-9)
Keith Martin Australian Research Council Research Associate (1992-6)