Linda J. Cook

I am a postdoc in the discrete math group at University of Amsterdam under the supervision of Ross Kang and funded by the NETWORKS consortium since August 2024.

I am interested in structural graph theory and its algorithmic applications. Lately I’ve been particularly excited about forbidding induced subgraphs and distributed graph algorithms. Broadly, I am interested in discrete math and its applications. I like bioinformatics.

I obtained my PhD from the Program for Applied and Computational Math at Princeton University in May 2021. Paul Seymour was my advisor. My Phd thesis is On recognition algorithms and structure of graphs with restricted induced cycles. From August 2021- July 2024, I was a postdoc in the Discrete Mathematics Group at the Institute of Basic Sciences in Daejeon, South Korea which is lead by Sang-il Oum. Sang-il still lets me host my website here. Thanks! 감사합니다! Since

In September 2025, I will begin an assistant professor position at University of Utrecht’s math department in the math modeling group.

News:

• May 12, 2025- speaking at the AGaPe (Algorithms with Performance Guarantees) conference in G-SCOP in Grenoble. I will be speaking t-perfect graphs (including my joint work with Maria Chudnovsky, James Davies, Sang-il Oum, and Jane Tan).
• My recent paper with Eunjung Kim and Tomas Masarik giving a tight algorithmic metatheorem for local certification was accepted at PODC (ACM Symposium on Principles of Distributed Computing) and I will be there to June 16-20 to present our work.
• June 2-6. I am visiting the Theoretical Computer Science department of Jagiellionian University in Kraków to work with
  Bartosz Walczak.
• July 9-11, 2025- I am speaking at the Belgian Graph Theory Conference.
• Mid July to mid August I am visiting the Discrete Math Group at IBS in South Korea (Hosted by Sang-il Oum).
• September 1 – My first day as an assistant professor at University of Utrecht
• November 19-21 2025, I will attend (and give a talk at) LoGAlg 2025 (the third edition of the Workshop on Logic, Graphs, and Algorithms) in Vienna.

More info:

• My arXiv page
• Academic travel (where you might have met me)
• I am a citizen of the USA and Germany and I grew up in the USA.
• I speak English (native), German (fluent) and French (intermediate). I am slowly learning Dutch.

• This site hosts the open problem list for the 2023 Matrix-IBS Structural Graph Theory Downunder III workshop.
• Outside of mathematics, I enjoy spending time with animals, running and hiking.

Mural of Mycielski Construction at Princeton University (with Joaquín Moraga and Jonathan Zung)

My Coauthors: A Aptekmann, P Bastide, P Blanco, M Bonamy, R Bourneuf, N Bousquet, Y Bromberg, M Bucic, M Chudnovsky (3), J Davies (3), J Erickson, PG Falkowski, DU Ferreiro, L Feuilloley, C Groenland (2), M Hatzel, C Hilaire, J Horsfield, F Illingworth, EJ Kim, M van Kreveld, Y Mahlich, I Mannens, T Masařík (2), R McCarty, M Miller, V Nanda, S Oum (2) , T Pierron, Ma. Pilipczuk, M Preissmann, A Reinald, C Robin, S Senn, P Seymour (3), NLD Sintiari, US Souza, J Tan, N Trotignon, JL Vermeulen, K Vušković, A Wesolek, S Zeitoun

(Updated May 2025)