Personal profile
Research interests
Research Interests: Algebraic combinatorics, graph theory, and topology.
Personal website: https://sites.google.com/view/iainmoffatt/home.
My research centers on the interface of combinatorics and topology. I am particularly interested in the ways in which combinatorial and topological structures can be encoded in one another, and in exploiting such connections to solve hard problems in combinatorics and topology. I work extensively with topological extensions of graph polynomials and constructions. I am especially interested in using the additional topological structure to gain new understandings of classical polynomials (such as the chromatic, Tutte and Penrose polynomials), their evaluations, their connections between each other, and their connections with quantum invariants of knots and statistical mechanics.
I am also interested in in quantum and finite-type invariants of knots and applications of geometric group theory to knot theory. In addition, I have recently been working on applications of graph theory to biology.
Education/Academic qualification
Mathematics, MSci, University of St Andrews
Mathematics, PhD, University of Warwick
External positions
Editor-in-Chief, Newsletter, London Mathematical Society
1 Dec 2016 → 1 Dec 2019
Keywords
- Mathematics
- combinatorics
- Graph Theory
Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
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Tensor product formulas for the Bollobás-Riordan and Krushkal polynomials
Moffatt, I. & Thompson, M., 9 Feb 2026, (Accepted/In press) In: The Electronic Journal of Combinatorics.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
1 Downloads (Pure) -
An activities expansion of the transition polynomial of a multimatroid
Merino, C., Moffatt, I. & Noble, S., 24 Jun 2025, (E-pub ahead of print) In: SIAM Journal on Discrete Mathematics. 39, 2, p. 1372-1407 36 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile9 Downloads (Pure) -
A Negami-type splitting formula for the Jones and ribbon graph polynomials
Huggett, S. & Moffatt, I., 12 Sept 2025, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Proceedings of the Edinburgh Mathematical Society (Series 2). p. 1-20 20 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access -
The critical group of a combinatorial map
Merino, C., Moffatt, I. & Noble, S., 15 Sept 2025, In: Combinatorial Theory. 5, 3Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile41 Downloads (Pure) -
A coarse Tutte polynomial for hypermaps
Moffatt, I., Ellis-Monaghan, J. A. & Noble, S., 18 Aug 2024, (Accepted/In press) Model Theory, Computer Science, and Graph Polynomials. Birkhäuser Cham, 23 p. (Trends in Mathematics).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
Open AccessFile48 Downloads (Pure)
Projects
- 9 Finished
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Hypermaps: polynomials, dualities and minors
Moffatt, I. (PI)
Eng & Phys Sci Res Council EPSRC
1/10/24 → 30/09/25
Project: Research
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Investigations of algebraic graphs of large girth and their cryptographical properties
Ustymenko, V. (PI) & Moffatt, I. (Other)
4/12/23 → 4/07/24
Project: Research
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The critical group of a topological graph: an approach through delta-matroid theory
Moffatt, I. (PI)
Eng & Phys Sci Res Council EPSRC
16/05/22 → 15/05/23
Project: Research
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Collaborative research with Prof Sergei Lando at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow
Moffatt, I. (PI)
1/11/17 → 30/10/18
Project: Research