As math majors, it is important for you to learn about the mathematical community. I hope that this report will give you the chance to delve into the life of a graph theorist who interests you. I will keep a list of mathematicians who have been chosen already and a list of suggested mathematicians that you can draw from if you do not feel inspired. Each graph theorist may be chosen by at most one student. If you have any strong preference, you will need to email me early to claim your graph theorist!

If you are one of the MAT students in the class, your project is different. You must create a one-hour lesson plan highlighting some topic in graph theory. Click here to learn more.

In order to help your time management, I have broken the assignment into three phases.
Phase I, due by February 29 : You must turn in the name of your graph theorist with a paragraph explaining what inspired you to choose this person. I suggest that you email me the name of your subject early that week to claim him or her.
Phase II, due March 19 : You must turn in a detailed outline of your report, with a bibliography that includes at least two offline sources. I expect this bibliography to include at least 85% of the works you will use to write your paper.
Phase III, due April 29 : You should have a final draft of your report. You will bring it to class and discuss it with your classmates. They will give feedback which will enable you to revise it to turn it in the following week.
Phase IV, due May 6 May 7 : The report is due.

Content: Your report will be 3-4 pages long. I expect your report to include

• Some background history of the mathematician (at most one half-page).
• Where your mathematician worked, and who were some of his or her colleagues. (Except in special cases, this will be at most a paragraph.)
• Why this person is important in graph theory.
• One or two major results and how they relate to graph theory in general. (Don't just state the result; if the math is unclear, I suggest coming to talk with me!)

Grading: This project represents 9% of your grade this semester. You will be graded on content and structure. Yes, even in a math paper, you must use proper grammar and spelling and follow conventions for good paper writing. Your paper must include a proper bibliography. Three of the nine percentage points will be based on the structure of the paper, with the possibility of removing more credit if the paper is incomprehensible. The remaining six percentage points will be based on content, as described above. If you would like me to review a draft of the paper, you must submit it in hard copy by the beginning of class on April 17.

Turnitin: I ask you to submit your final draft through the Turnitin feature of Blackboard. The following disclaimer explains that Turnitin automatically keeps a record of your paper.

Binghamton University and faculty members reserve the right to use electronic means to detect and help prevent plagiarism. Students agree that by their taking this course, the report on graph theorists becomes subject to submission for textual similarity review to Turnitin.com. Assignments submitted to Turnitin.com will be included as source documents in Turnitin.com's restricted access database solely for the purpose of detecting plagiarism in such documents for five academic years. The terms that apply to Binghamton University's use of the Turnitin.com service are described on the Turnitin.com website.