Razafimahatratra, who is our first Fields postdoc from Madagascar, completed his PhD at the University of Regina in 2022. Before he comes to Toronto this summer, he will wrap up his current postdoc at the University of Primorska in Slovenia under the supervision of Dragan Marušič. Marušič is considered the founder of the Slovenian school of research in algebraic graph theory and permutation groups, which corresponds to Razafimahatratra’s current research interests.

“Most of my research is about Erdős-Ko-Rado type problems for permutation groups,” he says on a Zoom call from Ljubljana. “I’ve also started working on EKR-type problems for other combinatorial structures; with Prof. Marušič, we’re doing Hamiltoncity in vertex-transitive graphs.”

The last two years in Europe have been “pretty good academically” for the emerging algebraic graph theorist, where he attended some huge conferences and met “a lot of famous people.” This proved quite a contrast from his PhD experience, 75% of which he completed during COVID-19 restrictions. “There wasn’t an opportunity to meet anyone,” he says.

He’s excited to redo that first Canadian experience in Toronto, where he hopes to take advantage of the Fields Institute’s many opportunities to network with fellow researchers and attend our many in-person events. He will also explore new avenues in his field under the supervision of Ada Chan at York University: “the tools we’re using are similar but we will work on different types of problems,” he explains.

Such bouncing around the world is funny when you consider how Razafimahatratra began his mathematical journey. A top student across the board in high school, he had offers to study at the Faculty of Science, the Faculty of Mathematics and the Faculty of Engineering. His life path ultimately boiled down to commute time. “I decided to go into math because the campus was 20 minutes from where I lived. For the others I’d have to move to another city,” he explains.

Traffic’s loss is mathematics’ gain. Razafimahatratra seems pretty chuffed about his decision as well. "I got an offer from my current university and the Institute of Mathematics, Physics and Mechanics in Ljubljana first, but I decided to accept the offer from Fields. Just to be at the Fields Institute is an opportunity that many people can only dream of."

In his downtime, you can probably find him hiking, playing guitar and watching football.

The Fields-AIMS-Perimeter Postdoctoral Fellowship is a unique one-year position intended for new and recent PhDs who are African nationals working in the areas of mathematical sciences or fundamental theoretical physics. The goal of this initiative is to support the careers of young researchers who have a commitment to advance science in Africa.