Patrick Bennett

Dr. Patrick Bennett is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics at Western Michigan University. He holds a Ph.D. in Algorithms, Combinatorics and Optimization from Carnegie Mellon University and was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Toronto prior to joining WMU in 2015. His research focuses on probabilistic and extremal combinatorics, specializing in randomized combinatorial algorithms for proving existence theorems about mathematical objects with specific properties.

Dr. Bennett's research interests center on graph theory and combinatorial optimization, particularly using algorithmic approaches to solve fundamental problems in discrete mathematics. His work often employs probabilistic methods to achieve rigorous analysis of complex combinatorial structures.

His publications predominantly explore combinatorial problems through advanced probabilistic methods and algorithmic frameworks, with consistent focus on Ramsey theory, graph coloring, random graph processes, and combinatorial game theory. The work demonstrates sophisticated applications of probability to extremal combinatorics problems.

Awards:

• Simons Foundation Collaboration Grant (2016-2026)
• National Science Foundation Conference Grant (2017-2019)
• Faculty Research and Creative Activities Award (2018-2019)

He has supervised PhD candidate Ryan Cushman (graduated 2021) and founded the annual Lake Michigan Workshop in combinatorics. His research is funded by multiple grants from the Simons Foundation and National Science Foundation.