July 15, 2016 [TORONTO] The Fields Institute is pleased to announce that Dr. Pawel Pralat of Ryerson University has been named the new Assistant Director of Industry Liaison.  

Dr. Pralat’s appointment at the Institute will run July 1, 2016 - June 30, 2017. He will join Dr. Tom Salisbury of York University, the newly appointed Associate Director of Industry Liaison, who said “Pawel’s appointment is wonderful news for the Fields Institute. His extensive experience in working with industry, and mentoring students in industrial internships, will be invaluable in helping Fields intensify its initiatives in this direction.”

Dr. Pralat has been a professor at Ryerson University since July 2011 and is currently the Associate Chair for Research within the Department of Mathematics. His main research focuses on graph theory with applications to real-world self-organizing networks; on both modelling and mining. Although he is one of the newest professors at Ryerson, Dr. Pralat is quickly advancing his research and its applications in mathematics.  When asked about his research interests Dr. Pralat said, “While I would call myself a pure mathematician, I am always interested in applying our knowledge and skills to solve real-world problems. I was involved in a number of applied research projects with industry partners, such as Blackberry, The Globe and Mail, or the government of Canada, and it was always a positive experience that not only helped the involved companies but also enriched my own research program.”

Dr. Pralat will serve as a contact for academic mathematicians who are seeking to develop connections with industry, and work to develop a scientific environment which nurtures collaboration between academic researchers and scientists in industry. He will also set up activities which facilitate networking and communication between graduate and postdoctoral level researchers in the mathematical sciences and potential employers in industry.

About his new position, Dr. Pralat said, “I am excited to join the Fields Institute and to act as a liaison between academic research mathematicians, and their counterparts in industries. I hope my positive experience will increase the level of collaboration between academic researchers and scientists in industry, along with furthering the contribution of the mathematical sciences in industry as a whole.”

Dr. Pralat’s term as the new Assistant Director of Industry Liaison commenced on July 1st, 2016.

About Dr. Pawel Pralat

Dr. Pawel Pralat received his Master of Science in Mathematics from the University of Lodz, Poland in 2000, his Master of Science and his Engineering degree in Computer Science from the Technical University of Lodz, Poland in 2001, and his PhD in Mathematics and Computer Science from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland in 2004. Following his PhD, Pralat gained experience as a post-doctoral fellow and adjunct professor at the University of Waterloo, Wilfrid Laurier University, and Dalhousie University. In 2009 he joined the department of mathematics at West Virginia University as Assistant Professor. In 2011 Pralat moved to Ryerson University to join their department of mathematics, where he became the Associate Chair for Research in July 2013 and Associate Professor in March 2014.

Dr. Pralat’s Research interests lie in graph theory with applications to real-world self-organizing networks such as the web graph, social networks, or terrorism network. He is interested in both modelling as well as mining complex networks with emphasis on connections to Big Data research questions. Both topics have experienced tremendous growth in the last few years, with an increasing number of applications in other areas of mathematics and computer science. 

About the Fields Institute

Founded in 1992, the Fields Institute is a leading international research centre located on the campus of the University of Toronto.

The mission of the Institute is to enhance mathematical activity in Canada by bringing together mathematicians from Canada and abroad, and by promoting contact and collaboration between professional mathematicians and the increasing numbers of users of mathematics. Thus the Institute supports research in pure and applied mathematics, statistics and computer science, as well as collaboration between mathematicians and those applying mathematics in areas such as engineering, the physical and biological sciences, medicine, economics and finance, telecommunications and information systems.

Every year, its programs attract more than 4000 participants from around the world. The Institute is supported by the Ontario Ministry of Research, Innovation and Science, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the National Science Foundation (US), and a growing list of partner universities and corporations in Canada, the United States, and Europe.