mathematics

Jaroslav Nešetřil

Jaroslav Nešetřil is a mathematics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Jaroslav Nešetřil rather than just read about it. In short: Jaroslav Nešetřil (Czech pronunciation: [ˈjaroslaf ˈnɛʃɛtr̝̊ɪl]; born 13 March 1946) is a Czech mathematician. His research areas include combinatorics (structural combinatorics, Ramsey theory), graph theory (coloring problems, sparse structures), algebra (representation of structures, categories, homomorphisms), posets (diagram and dimension problems), computer science (complexity, NP-completeness).

Key takeaways

Jaroslav Nešetřil belongs to mathematics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Jaroslav Nešetřil to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Jaroslav Nešetřil from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Jaroslav Nešetřil (Czech pronunciation: [ˈjaroslaf ˈnɛʃɛtr̝̊ɪl]; born 13 March 1946) is a Czech mathematician. His research areas include combinatorics (structural combinatorics, Ramsey theory), graph theory (coloring problems, sparse structures), algebra (representation of structures, categories, homomorphisms), posets (diagram and dimension problems), computer science (complexity, NP-completeness). He works at Charles University in Prague.

Education and career Nešetřil received his Ph.D. from Charles University in 1973 under the supervision of Aleš Pultr and Gert Sabidussi. He is responsible for more than 300 publications. Since 2006, he is chairman of the Committee of Mathematics of Czech Republic (the Czech partner of IMU). Jaroslav Nešetřil is Editor in Chief of Computer Science Review and INTEGERS: the Electronic Journal of Combinatorial Number Theory. He is also honorary editor of Electronic Journal of Graph Theory and Applications. Since 2008, Jaroslav Nešetřil belongs to the Advisory Board of the Academia Sinica.

Awards and honors He was awarded the state prize (1985 jointly with Vojtěch Rödl) for a collection of papers in Ramsey theory. The book Sparsity - Graphs, Structures, and Algorithms he co-authored with Patrice Ossona de Mendez was included in ACM Computing Reviews list of Notable Books and Articles of 2012. Nešetřil is a corresponding member of the German Academy of Sciences since 1996 and has been declared Doctor Honoris Causa of the University of Alaska (Fairbanks) in 2002. He has also been declared Doctor Honoris Causa of the University of Bordeaux 1 in 2009; the speech he made in French at this occasion attracted a great deal of attention. He received in 2010 the Medal of Merit of Czech Republic and the Gold medal of Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University in 2011. In 2012, he has been elected to the Academia Europaea. Also, he has been elected honorary member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 2013. He was an invited speaker of the European Congress of Mathematics, in Amsterdam, 2008, and invited speaker (by both the Logic and Foundations and Combinatorics sections) at the Combinatorics session of the International Congress of Mathematicians, in Hyderabad, 2010. In 2018, on the occasion of the 670th anniversary of the establishment of Charles University, Nešetřil has received from the rector of Charles university the Donatio Universitatis Carolinae prize “for his contribution to mathematics and for his leading role in establishing a world-renowned group in discrete mathematics at Charles University”. Together with Patrice Ossona de Mendez, he received the 2025 Nerode Prize for his work on Sparsity for the papers Grad and classes with bounded expansion I. Decompositions, Grad and classes with bounded expansion II. Algorithmic aspects, First order properties on nowhere dense structures, and On nowhere dense graphs.

Books

Hell, Pavol; Nešetřil, Jaroslav (2004). Graphs and Homomorphisms (Oxford Lecture Series in Mathematics and Its Applications). Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-852817-5. Matoušek, Jiří; Nešetřil, Jaroslav (1998). Invitation to Discrete Mathematics. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-850207-9. 2008 2nd edition (hbk); 2009 2nd edition (pbk) Matoušek, Jiří; Nešetřil, Jaroslav (2002). Diskrete Mathematik: Eine Entdeckungsreise (in German). Translated by Mielke, Heinz. Springer. ISBN 3-540-42386-9. Matoušek, Jiří; Nešetřil, Jaroslav (2006). Introduction aux mathématiques discrètes (in French). Springer. ISBN 228720010X. Nešetřil, Jaroslav; Ossona de Mendez, Patrice (2012). Sparsity - Graphs, Structures, and Algorithms (Algorithms and Combinatorics, Vol. 28). Springer. ISBN 978-3-642-27874-7. Nešetřil, Jaroslav; Rödl, Vojtěch, eds. (1991). Mathematics of Ramsey Theory (Algorithms and Combinatorics, Vol. 5). Springer. ISBN 0-387-18191-1. 2012 pbk reprint

References

External links Official website

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Jaroslav Nešetřil

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Jaroslav Nešetřil claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In mathematics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Jaroslav Nešetřil before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Jaroslav Nešetřil ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Jaroslav Nešetřil

In research: Jaroslav Nešetřil appears in mathematics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Jaroslav Nešetřil in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Jaroslav Nešetřil is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1946 births, 20th-century Czech mathematicians, 21st-century Czech mathematicians, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Jaroslav Nešetřil outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Jaroslav Nešetřil” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Jaroslav Nešetřil in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Jaroslav Nešetřil means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Jaroslav Nešetřil out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Jaroslav Nešetřil in simple terms?

Why does Jaroslav Nešetřil matter?

Because it connects several mathematics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Jaroslav Nešetřil?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Jaroslav Nešetřil.