Professor of Computer Science at "Kahlert School of Computing" at the University of Utah
Visiting professor 2025-2026 from November 1 to November 30 2025
Inviting professor: Nicolas Trotignon
Biography
Blair D. Sullivan holds a PhD in Mathematics from Princeton and a BA from Georgia Tech, and is a professor of Computer Science at the University of Utah. Previously, she held positions at North Carolina State University and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. She works specifically on the topic of "Bringing theory and practice together: improving the usability of parameterized algorithms for network analysis through the modification of twin widths and graphs."
Collaboration with LIP
The LIP’s MC2 team, comprising Édouard Bonnet, Stéphan Thomassé, and Rémi Watrigant, introduced the concept of twin-width, a measure of graph complexity. This concept has had a major impact on the scientific community, as evidenced by Édouard Bonnet’s CNRS bronze medal and the numerous citations of their article published in the Journal of the ACM in 2021. Researcher Blair Sullivan, a specialist in effective twin-width computation, shares a strong interest in the practical applications of graph algorithms. Thus, a collaboration between her team and the LIP promises joint advances, both theoretical and applied. This synergy may give rise to new questions and open up new avenues of research.
In addition, cooperation is planned with the Roma team, led by Bora Uçar, on hypergraph partitioning. This field is crucial for applications such as high-performance computing, VLSI circuit design, and graph neural networks. Researchers are seeking to improve partitioning tools by modifying the structure of hypergraphs. In this regard, Bora Uçar and his colleagues have already developed fast heuristics for certain classes of hypergraphs. Blair Sullivan’s expertise in graph and hypergraph editing will therefore be particularly useful in this context.
In addition, LIP researchers already have close ties with the GOAL team at LIRIS. They share a joint seminar (Graphe@Lyon) and numerous joint publications, and are interested in Blair Sullivan’s work on graph editing. This new collaboration will further strengthen exchanges between the Lyon-based teams working in graph theory.
Major publications
- M. Bentert, A. Crane, D. Coimbra Salomao+, Y. Mizutani, F. Reidl, B. D. Sullivan. A Space-Efficient Algebraic Approach to Robotic Motion Planning. Under conference review (Feb 2025). ArXiv:2409.08219
- M. Pividori, S. Lu, B. Li, C. Su, M. E. Johnson, W. Wei, Q. Feng, B. Namjou, K. Kiryluk, I. Kullo, Y. Luo, B. D. Sullivan, B. F. Voight, C. Skarke, M. Ritchie, S. Grant, C. S. Greene. Projecting genetic associations through gene expression patterns highlights disease etiology and drug mechanisms. Nature Communication 14, 2023. bioRxiv:2021.07.05.450786.
- M. Breen-McKay, B. Lavallee, B. D. Sullivan. Hardness of the Generalized Coloring Numbers. ArXiv:2112.10562. European J. of Combinatorics 123:103709, 2025.
- Y. Mizutani, D. Dursteler, B. D. Sullivan. Hydra Prime: An Exact Solver for Twin-width. Proceedings of the 18th International Symposium on Parameterized and Exact Computation (IPEC) 2023.