Professor Rob Curtis MA PhD

School of Mathematics
Professor of Combinatorial Algebra

Contact details

Email
r.t.curtis@bham.ac.uk
Address
School of Mathematics
Watson Building
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Prof. Rob Curtis was a member of staff at the University from 1980 until his retirement in 2010. From 1998 until 2003 he was Head of School, and a Senate representative on the Council of the University.

Qualifications

  • MA, PhD in Pure Mathematics, University of Cambridge, 1972

Biography

Prof. Rob Curtis completed his PhD at Cambridge under the supervision of John Conway. Arriving in Birmingham in 1980, he held a number of administrative roles, supervised 16 students, and taught a variety of courses over a 30-year career before retiring in 2010. He was Head of School between 1998 and 2003, during which he was Chairman of the 55th British Mathematical Colloquium.

He was a member-at-large of the London Mathematical Society from 2001 to 2007 and served on various committees, including the Programmes Committee for several years. He was LMS Librarian from 2003 to 2007, during which time he was Chairman of the Editorial Board, overseeing the publication of The Book of Presidents 1865 - 1965 by Susan Oakes, Alan Pears and Adrian Rice (2005). During his term in office the LMS agreed to house the Philippa Fawcett Library of Women Mathematicians. He returned to the Council of the London Mathematical Society as Treasurer in 2011 and served in that role until 2020, where he remains an honorary treasurer.

Research

Research Themes

  • Algebra and combinatorics; in particular, finite groups and the combinatorial/geometric objects on which they act
  • Symmetric generation of groups

Publications

Selected Publications

  • Curtis, RT 2016, 'The Thompson chain of subgroups of the Conway group Co1 and complete graphs on n vertices', Journal of Group Theory, vol 19, pp. 959-982.
  • Bolt, SW, Bray, JN, and Curtis, RT 2007, 'Symmetric presentation of the Janko Group J4'. Journal of the London Mathematical Society, vol 76, pp. 683--701.
  • Curtis, RT 2007, Symmetric generation of groups, with applications to many of the sporadic finite simple groups. Cambridge University Press.
  • Bray, JN, Curtis, RT 2004. 'Double coset enumeration of symmetrically generated groups', Journal of Group Theory, vol. 7, pp. 167-185.
  • Bray, JN, Curtis, RT, Parker, CW, Wiedorn, C 2003, 'Symmetric presentations for the Fischer groups I: the classical groups Sp6(2), Sp8(2) and 3.O7(3)', Journal of Algebra, vol. 265, pp. 171-199.
  • Curtis, RT 1999. Symmetric generation and existence of the Janko group J1, Journal of Group Theory, vol. 2, pp. 355-366.
  • Curtis, RT 1996. 'Monomial modular representations and construction of the Held group', Journal of Algebra, vol 184, pp. 1205-1227.