astronomy

Jim Geelen

Jim Geelen is a astronomy 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 Jim Geelen rather than just read about it. In short: Jim Geelen is a professor at the Department of Combinatorics and Optimization in the faculty of mathematics at the University of Waterloo, where he holds the Canada Research Chair in Combinatorial optimization. He is known for his work on matroid theory and the extension of the Graph Minors Project to representable matroids.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Jim Geelen is a professor at the Department of Combinatorics and Optimization in the faculty of mathematics at the University of Waterloo, where he holds the Canada Research Chair in Combinatorial optimization. He is known for his work on matroid theory and the extension of the Graph Minors Project to representable matroids. In 2003, he won the Fulkerson Prize with his co-authors A. M. H. Gerards, and A. Kapoor for their research on Rota's excluded minors conjecture. In 2006, he won the Coxeter–James Prize presented by the Canadian Mathematical Society. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1992 from Curtin University in Australia, and obtained his Ph.D. in 1996 at the University of Waterloo under the supervision of William Cunningham. After brief postdoctoral fellowships in the Netherlands, Germany, and Japan, he returned to the University of Waterloo in 1997.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Jim Geelen

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Jim Geelen claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, 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 Jim Geelen 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 Jim Geelen 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 Jim Geelen

In research: Jim Geelen appears in astronomy 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 Jim Geelen 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: Jim Geelen is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Academic staff of the University of Waterloo, Canada Research Chairs, Canadian scientist stubs, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Jim Geelen 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.

Affiliate

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

How to study Jim Geelen in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Jim Geelen 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 Jim Geelen out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Jim Geelen in simple terms?

Why does Jim Geelen matter?

Because it connects several astronomy 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 Jim Geelen?

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 Jim Geelen.