mathematics

Takao Nishizeki

Takao Nishizeki 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 Takao Nishizeki rather than just read about it. In short: Takao Nishizeki (西関隆夫, Nishizeki Takao; 1947 – 30 January 2022) was a Japanese mathematician and computer scientist who specialized in graph algorithms and graph drawing. Education and career Nishizeki was born in 1947 in Fukushima, and was a student at Tohoku University, earning a bachelor's degree in 1969, a master's in 1971, and a doctorate in 1974.

Key takeaways

Takao Nishizeki belongs to mathematics; place it in that map before memorising details.
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Reproduce the core statement of Takao Nishizeki from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Takao Nishizeki (西関隆夫, Nishizeki Takao; 1947 – 30 January 2022) was a Japanese mathematician and computer scientist who specialized in graph algorithms and graph drawing.

Education and career Nishizeki was born in 1947 in Fukushima, and was a student at Tohoku University, earning a bachelor's degree in 1969, a master's in 1971, and a doctorate in 1974. He continued at Tohoku as a faculty member, and became a full professor there in 1988. He was the Dean of the Graduate School of Information Sciences, Tohoku University, from April 2008 to March 2010. He retired in 2010, becoming a professor emeritus at Tohoku University, but continued teaching as a professor at Kwansei Gakuin University until March 2015. He was an Auditor of Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology from April 2016 to October 2018.

Contributions Nishizeki made significant contributions to algorithms for series–parallel graphs, finding cliques in sparse graphs, planarity testing and the secret sharing with any access structure. He is the co-author of two books on planar graphs and graph drawing. In 1990, Nishizeki founded the annual International Symposium on Algorithms and Computation (ISAAC).

Awards and honors At the 18th ISAAC symposium, in 2007, a workshop was held to celebrate his 60th birthday. In 1996, he became a life fellow of the IEEE "for contributions to graph algorithms with applications to physical design of electronic systems." In 1996 he was selected as a fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery "for contributions to the design and analysis of efficient algorithms for planar graphs, network flows and VLSI routing". Nishizeki was also a foreign fellow of the Bangladesh Academy of Sciences; one of his students and frequent co-authors, Md. Saidur Rahman, is from Bangladesh.

Selected publications Books Nishizeki, T.; Chiba, N. (1988), Planar Graphs: Theory and Algorithms, North-Holland Mathematics Studies, vol. 140, North-Holland, ISBN 978-0-444-70212-8, MR 0941967. Nishizeki, Takao; Rahman, Md. Saidur (2004), Planar Graph Drawing, Lecture Notes Series on Computing, vol. 12, World Scientific, doi:10.1142/5648, ISBN 978-981-256-033-9, MR 2112244. Research articles Takamizawa, K.; Nishizeki, T.; Saito, N. (1982), "Linear-time computability of combinatorial problems on series–parallel graphs", Journal of the ACM, 29 (3): 623–641, doi:10.1145/322326.322328, MR 0666771, S2CID 16082154. Chiba, Norishige; Nishizeki, Takao (1985), "Arboricity and subgraph listing algorithms", SIAM Journal on Computing, 14 (1): 210–223, doi:10.1137/0214017, MR 0774940, S2CID 207051803. Chiba, Norishige; Nishizeki, Takao; Abe, Shigenobu; Ozawa, Takao (1985), "A linear algorithm for embedding planar graphs using PQ-trees", Journal of Computer and System Sciences, 30 (1): 54–76, doi:10.1016/0022-0000(85)90004-2, MR 0788831. Ito, Mitsuru; Saito, Akira; Nishizeki, Takao (1989), "Secret sharing scheme realizing general access structure", Electronics and Communications in Japan (Part III: Fundamental Electronic Science), 72 (9): 56–64, doi:10.1002/ecjc.4430720906.

References

External links Takao Nishizeki publications indexed by Google Scholar

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Takao Nishizeki

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Takao Nishizeki 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 Takao Nishizeki 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 Takao Nishizeki 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 Takao Nishizeki

In research: Takao Nishizeki 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 Takao Nishizeki 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: Takao Nishizeki is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1947 births, 2022 deaths, 20th-century Japanese mathematicians, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Takao Nishizeki 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 Takao Nishizeki in 20 minutes

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Frequently asked questions

What is Takao Nishizeki in simple terms?

Takao Nishizeki (西関隆夫, Nishizeki Takao; 1947 – 30 January 2022) was a Japanese mathematician and computer scientist who specialized in graph algorithms and graph drawing. Education and career Nishizeki was born in 1947 in Fukushima, and was a student at Tohoku University, earning a bachelor's degr…

Why does Takao Nishizeki 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 Takao Nishizeki?

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 Takao Nishizeki.