Structure amidst complexityLecture

by Dr Raphael Steiner

Tuesday Nov 11, 2025, 10:15 AM → 11:00 AM Europe/Berlin

Endenicher Allee 60/1-016 - Lipschitzsaal (Mathezentrum)

A universal phenomenon that is observed and studied both in the natural sciences and mathematics is that structure can arise even from a chaotic and highly complex environment. Many distinct areas of mathematics study the interplay of structure and complexity/chaos in various mathematical systems and objects, e.g., dynamical systems, ergodic theory, fractal geometry, numbery theory, complex networks and also combinatorics.

In this talk, I will present two prominent and active areas of research in combinatorics that aim to find structure within highly complex and seemingly chaotic discrete objects, namely Ramsey theory and the theory of graph colorings (chromatic graph theory). I will discuss selected open problems from each of these areas and present some of my own contributions to those as well.