Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications


The Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications 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 Boca Raton, Florida and its operation office is housed at Florida Atlantic University.
The institute was minimally active between 2010 and 2016 and resumed its full activities in March 2016.

Membership

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 include
S. S. Shrikhande, C. R. Rao, G. J. Simmons, Vera Sós, Henry Gould, Carsten Thomassen, and Neil Robertson.

Publication

The ICA publishes the Bulletin of the ICA, 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.

Medals

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 and February 2017 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.

List of Euler Medal winners

YearWinners
2019no medal awarded
2018Dieter Jungnickel
2017Fan Chung
2016James Hirschfeld
2015No medal awarded
2014Brian Alspach
2013Curt Lindner
2012Alex Rosa
2011Cheryl Praeger
2010Bojan Mohar
2009– no medal awarded –
2008Gábor Korchmáros
2007Stephen Milne, Heiko Harborth
2006Clement W. H. Lam, Nick Wormald
2005Ralph Faudree, Aviezri Fraenkel
2004Doron Zeilberger, Zhu Lie
2003Peter Cameron, Charles Colbourn
2002Herbert Wilf
2001Spyros Magliveras
2000Richard A. Brualdi, Horst Sachs
1999D. K. Ray-Chaudhuri
1998Peter Ladislaw Hammer, Anthony Hilton
1997– no medal awarded –
1996J.H. van Lint
1995Hanfried Lenz
1994Joseph A. Thas
1993Claude Berge, Ronald Graham

List of Hall Medal winners

YearWinners
2019Koen Thas and Jeroen Schillewaert
2018Kai-Uwe Schmidt
2017John Bamberg and Daniel Horsley
2016– no medal awarded –
2015Lijun Ji
2014Peter Dukes
2013Bart De Bruyn
2012Michael Giudici
2011Olga Polverino
2010Catherine Greenhill
2009– no medal awarded –
2008Ian Wanless
2007David Pike
2006Darryn Bryant, Gennian Ge, Heather Jordon
2005Jonathan Jedwab
2004Dirk Hachenberger, Masaaki Harada
2003Antonio Cossidente
2002Saad El-Zanati
2001Alfred Menezes, Alexander Pott
2000Michael Henning, Klaus Metsch
1999Hendrik Van Maldeghem, Rolf Rees
1998Marco Buratti, Arrigo Bonisoli
1997Reinhard Diestel
1996Christos Koukouvinos, Christine O'Keefe, Tim Penttila
1995Donald Kreher
1994Ortrud Oellermann, Chris Rodger, Doug Stinson

List of Kirkman Medal winners

YearWinners
2019Tao Zhang
2018Alexander Bors, Shuxing Li
2017Hengjia Wei, Binzhou Xia
2016Yue Zhou
2015Padraig Ó Catháin
2014Daniele Bartoli
2013Tommaso Traetta
2012Rebecca Stones, Xiande Zhang
2011Tao Feng
2010Daniel Horsley and Kai-Uwe Schmidt
2009– no medal awarded –
2008Nick Cavenagh, Futaba Okamoto
2007Petteri Kaski, Peter Dukes
2006John Bamberg, Giuseppe Marino, Koen Thas
2005Michael Giudici, Matt Walsh
2004Andreas Enge, Jon-Lark Kim
2003Ken-ichi Kawarabayashi, Mateja Sajna, Sanming Zhou
2002Ian Wanless
2001Matthew Brown, Alan Ling, Ying Miao
2000Michael Raines
1999Nicholas Hamilton, Qing Xiang
1998Peter Adams, Cai Heng Li
1997Makoto Matsumoto, Bernhard Schmidt
1996Gregory Gutin, Patric R. J. Östergård
1995Darryn Bryant
1994Robert Craigen, Jonathan Jedwab

List of Stanton Medal winners

YearWinners
2019Charlie Colbourn
2018– no medal awarded –
2017Robin Wilson
2016Ronald Mullin