| Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications | |
| Abbreviation: | ICA |
| Type: | 501(c)(3) |
| Focus: | increase visibility and influence of the combinatorial community |
| Board Of Directors: | Charles Colbourn, President Dalibor Froncek, Vice-president David Pike, Vice-president Anita Pasotti, Vice-president Sarah Heuss, Secretary Bryan Freyberg, Registrar |
| Homepage: | http://www.the-ica.org/ |
The Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications (ICA) is an international scientific organization formed in 1990 to increase the visibility and influence of the combinatorial community. In pursuit of this goal, the ICA sponsors conferences, publishes a bulletin and awards a number of medals, including the Euler, Hall, Kirkman, and Stanton Medals. It is based in Duluth, Minnesota and its operation office is housed at University of Minnesota Duluth.[1] The institute was minimally active between 2010 and 2016 and resumed its full activities in March 2016.[2]
The ICA has over 800 members in over forty countries. Membership is at three levels. Members are those who have not yet completed a Ph.D. Associate Fellows are younger members who have received the Ph.D. or have published extensively; normally an Associate Fellow should hold the rank of assistant professor. Fellows are expected to be established scholars and typically have the rank of associate professor or higher.Some members are involved in highly theoretical research; there are members whose primary interest lies in education and instruction; and there are members who are heavily involved in the applications of combinatorics in statistical design, communications theory, cryptography, computer security, and other practical areas.
Although being a fellow of the ICA is not itself a highly selective honor, the ICA also maintains another class of members, "honorary fellows", people who have made "pre-eminent contributions to combinatorics or its applications". The number of living honorary fellows is limited to ten at any time. The deceased honorary fellows include H. S. M. Coxeter, Paul Erdős, Haim Hanani, Bernhard Neumann, D. H. Lehmer,Leonard Carlitz, Robert Frucht, E. M. Wright, and Horst Sachs.Living honorary fellows includeS. S. Shrikhande, C. R. Rao, G. J. Simmons, Vera Sós, Henry Gould, Carsten Thomassen, Neil Robertson, Cheryl Praeger, and R. M. Wilson.[3]
The ICA publishes the Bulletin of the ICA[4], a journal that combines publication of survey and research papers with news of members and accounts of future and past conferences. It appears three times a year, in January, May and September and usually consists of 128 pages.
Beginning in 2017, the research articles in the Bulletin have been made available on an open access basis.[5]
The ICA awards the Euler Medals annually for distinguished career contributions to combinatorics by a member of the institute who is still active in research. It is named after the 18th century mathematician Leonhard Euler.
The ICA awards the Hall Medals, named after Marshall Hall, Jr., to recognize outstanding achievements by members who are not over age 40.
The ICA awards the Kirkman Medals, named after Thomas Kirkman, to recognize outstanding achievements by members who are within four years past their Ph.D.
The winners of the medals for the years between 2010 and 2015 were decided by the ICA Medals Committee between November 2016[6] and February 2017[7] after the ICA resumed its activities in 2016.
In 2016, the ICA voted to institute an ICA medal to be known as the Stanton Medal, named after Ralph Stanton, in recognition of substantial and sustained contributions, other than research, to promoting the discipline of combinatorics. The Stanton Medal honours significant lifetime contributions to promoting the discipline of combinatorics through advocacy, outreach, service, teaching and/or mentoring. At most one medal per year is to be awarded, typically to a Fellow of the ICA.
| Year | Winners | |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Jennifer Seberry | |
| 2022 | George Andrews | |
| 2021 | Hendrik Van Maldeghem | |
| 2020 | Marston Conder | |
| 2019 | no medal awarded | |
| 2018 | Dieter Jungnickel | |
| 2017 | Fan Chung | |
| 2016 | James Hirschfeld | |
| 2015 | No medal awarded | |
| 2014 | Brian Alspach | |
| 2013 | Curt Lindner | |
| 2012 | Alex Rosa | |
| 2011 | Cheryl Praeger | |
| 2010 | Bojan Mohar | |
| 2009 | – no medal awarded – | |
| 2008 | Gábor Korchmáros | |
| 2007 | Stephen Milne, Heiko Harborth | |
| 2006 | Clement W. H. Lam, Nick Wormald | |
| 2005 | Ralph Faudree, Aviezri Fraenkel | |
| 2004 | Doron Zeilberger, Zhu Lie | |
| 2003 | Peter Cameron, Charles Colbourn | |
| 2002 | Herbert Wilf | |
| 2001 | Spyros Magliveras | |
| 2000 | Richard A. Brualdi, Horst Sachs | |
| 1999 | D. K. Ray-Chaudhuri | |
| 1998 | Peter Ladislaw Hammer, Anthony Hilton | |
| 1997 | – no medal awarded – | |
| 1996 | J.H. van Lint | |
| 1995 | Hanfried Lenz | |
| 1994 | Joseph A. Thas | |
| 1993 | Claude Berge, Ronald Graham |
| Year | Winners | |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Jan Goedgebeur and Kenta Ozeki | |
| 2022 | Jan De Beule and Pablo Spiga | |
| 2021 | Tao Feng and Anita Pasotti | |
| 2020 | Jie Ma | |
| 2019 | Koen Thas and Jeroen Schillewaert | |
| 2018 | Kai-Uwe Schmidt | |
| 2017 | John Bamberg and Daniel Horsley | |
| 2016 | – no medal awarded – | |
| 2015 | Lijun Ji | |
| 2014 | Peter Dukes | |
| 2013 | Bart De Bruyn | |
| 2012 | Michael Giudici | |
| 2011 | Olga Polverino | |
| 2010 | Catherine Greenhill | |
| 2009 | – no medal awarded – | |
| 2008 | Ian Wanless | |
| 2007 | David Pike | |
| 2006 | Darryn Bryant, Gennian Ge, Heather Jordon | |
| 2005 | Jonathan Jedwab | |
| 2004 | Dirk Hachenberger, Masaaki Harada | |
| 2003 | Antonio Cossidente | |
| 2002 | Saad El-Zanati | |
| 2001 | Alfred Menezes, Alexander Pott | |
| 2000 | Michael Henning, Klaus Metsch | |
| 1999 | Hendrik Van Maldeghem, Rolf Rees | |
| 1998 | Marco Buratti, Arrigo Bonisoli | |
| 1997 | Reinhard Diestel | |
| 1996 | Christos Koukouvinos, Christine O'Keefe, Tim Penttila | |
| 1995 | Donald Kreher | |
| 1994 | Ortrud Oellermann, Chris Rodger, Doug Stinson |
| Year | Winners | |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Yifan Jing, Sam Mattheus | |
| 2022 | Melissa Huggan, Ziqing Xiang | |
| 2021 | Yujie Gu, Natasha Morrison | |
| 2020 | Chong Shangguan | |
| 2019 | Tao Zhang | |
| 2018 | Alexander Bors, Shuxing Li | |
| 2017 | Hengjia Wei, Binzhou Xia | |
| 2016 | Yue Zhou | |
| 2015 | Padraig Ó Catháin | |
| 2014 | Daniele Bartoli | |
| 2013 | Tommaso Traetta | |
| 2012 | Rebecca Stones, Xiande Zhang | |
| 2011 | Tao Feng | |
| 2010 | Daniel Horsley, Kai-Uwe Schmidt | |
| 2009 | – no medal awarded – | |
| 2008 | Nick Cavenagh, Futaba Okamoto | |
| 2007 | Petteri Kaski, Peter Dukes | |
| 2006 | John Bamberg, Giuseppe Marino, Koen Thas | |
| 2005 | Michael Giudici, Matt Walsh | |
| 2004 | Andreas Enge, Jon-Lark Kim | |
| 2003 | Ken-ichi Kawarabayashi, Mateja Sajna, Sanming Zhou | |
| 2002 | Ian Wanless | |
| 2001 | Matthew Brown, Alan Ling, Ying Miao | |
| 2000 | Michael Raines | |
| 1999 | Nicholas Hamilton, Qing Xiang | |
| 1998 | Peter Adams, Cai Heng Li | |
| 1997 | Makoto Matsumoto, Bernhard Schmidt | |
| 1996 | Gregory Gutin, Patric R. J. Östergård | |
| 1995 | Darryn Bryant | |
| 1994 | Robert Craigen, Jonathan Jedwab |
| Year | Winners | |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | - no medal awarded - | |
| 2022 | Doug Stinson | |
| 2021 | Gary Chartrand | |
| 2020 | - no medal awarded - | |
| 2019 | Charlie Colbourn | |
| 2018 | – no medal awarded – | |
| 2017 | Robin Wilson | |
| 2016 | Ronald Mullin |