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Heiko Harborth

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Fields
  
Mathematics

Name
  
Heiko Harborth

Awards
  
Euler Medal

Role
  
Professor of mathematics

Residence
  
Germany


Heiko Harborth wwwmathematiktubsdeharborthbildharjpg

Born
  
February 11, 1938 Celle, Germany (
1938-02-11
)

Institutions
  
Braunschweig University of Technology

Alma mater
  
Braunschweig University of Technology

Doctoral students
  
19 doctoral students and 23 descendents

Known for
  
number theory, combinatorics, and discrete geometry

Education
  
Braunschweig University of Technology

Notable awards
  
Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications

Doctoral advisor
  
Hans-Joachim Kanold

Academic advisor
  
Hans-Joachim Kanold

Heiko Harborth (born 11 February 1938, Celle, Germany) is Professor of Mathematics at Braunschweig University of Technology, 1975–present, and author of more than 188 mathematical publications. His work is mostly in the areas of number theory, combinatorics and discrete geometry, including graph theory.

Contents

Career

Harborth has been an instructor or professor at Braunschweig University of Technology since studying there and receiving his PhD in 1965 under Hans-Joachim Kanold.

Harborth is a member of the New York Academy of Sciences, Braunschweigische Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft, the Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications, and many other mathematical societies.

Harborth currently sits on the editorial boards of Fibonacci Quarterly, Geombinatorics, Integers: Electronic Journal of Combinatorial Number Theory. He served as an editor of Mathematische Semesterberichte from 1988 to 2001.

Harborth was a joint recipient (with Stephen Milne) of the 2007 Euler Medal.

Mathematical work

Harborth's research ranges across the subject areas of combinatorics, graph theory, discrete geometry, and number theory.

In 1974, Harborth solved the unit coin graph problem, determining the maximum number of edges possible in a unit coin graph on n vertices.

In 1986, Harborth presented the graph that would bear his name, the Harborth graph. It is the smallest known example of a 4-regular matchstick graph. It has 104 edges and 52 vertices.

In connection with the happy ending problem, Harborth showed that, for every finite set of ten or more points in general position in the plane, some five of them form a convex pentagon that does not contain any of the other points.

Harborth's conjecture posits that every planar graph admits a straight-line embedding in the plane where every edge has integer length. This open question (as of 2014) is a stronger version of Fáry's theorem. It is known to be true for cubic graphs.

In number theory, the Stolarsky–Harborth constant is named for Harborth, along with Kenneth Stolarsky.

Private life

Harborth married Karin Reisener in 1961, and they had two children. He was widowed in 1980. In 1985 he married Bärbel Peter and with her has three stepchildren.

References

Heiko Harborth Wikipedia