astronomy

Ortrud Oellermann

Ortrud Oellermann 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 Ortrud Oellermann rather than just read about it. In short: Ortrud R. Oellermann is a South African mathematician specializing in graph theory.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Ortrud R. Oellermann is a South African mathematician specializing in graph theory. She is a professor of mathematics at the University of Winnipeg.

Education and career Oellermann was born in Vryheid. She earned a bachelor's degree, cum laude honours, and a master's degree at the University of Natal in 1981, 1982, and 1983 respectively, as a student of Henda Swart. She completed her Ph.D. in 1986 at Western Michigan University. Her dissertation was Generalized Connectivity in Graphs and was supervised by Gary Chartrand. Oellermann taught at the University of Durban-Westville, Western Michigan University, University of Natal, and Brandon University, before moving to Winnipeg in 1996. At Winnipeg, she was co-chair of mathematics and statistics for 2011–2013.

Contributions With Gary Chartrand, Oellermann is the author of the book Applied and Algorithmic Graph Theory (McGraw Hill, 1993).[AA] She is also the author of well-cited research publications on metric dimension of graphs[MD], on distance-based notions of convex hulls in graphs,[CS] and on highly irregular graphs in which every vertex has a neighborhood in which all degrees are distinct.[IG] The phrase "highly irregular" was a catchphrase of her co-author Yousef Alavi; because of this, Ronald Graham suggested that there should be a concept of highly irregular graphs, by analogy to the regular graphs, and Oellermann came up with the definition of these graphs.

Recognition In 1991, Oellermann was the winner of the annual Silver British Association Medal of the Southern Africa Association for the Advancement of Science. She won the Meiring Naude Medal of the Royal Society of South Africa in 1994. She was also one of three winners of the Hall Medal of the Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications in 1994, the first year the medal was awarded.

Awards She has been recognized with the Erica and Arnold Rogers Research Award for Excellence in Research

Selected publications

Book

Research articles

References

External links Home page

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Ortrud Oellermann

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Ortrud Oellermann 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 Ortrud Oellermann 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 Ortrud Oellermann 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 Ortrud Oellermann

In research: Ortrud Oellermann 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 Ortrud Oellermann 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: Ortrud Oellermann is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Academic staff of Brandon University, Academic staff of University of Winnipeg, Academic staff of the University of Natal, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Ortrud Oellermann 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.

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How to study Ortrud Oellermann in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Ortrud Oellermann in simple terms?

Ortrud R. Oellermann is a South African mathematician specializing in graph theory.

Why does Ortrud Oellermann 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 Ortrud Oellermann?

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 Ortrud Oellermann.