Professor Benjamin Burton
Professor
School of Mathematics and Physics
+61 7 336 51164
Researcher biography
Benjamin Burton's research interests include computational geometry and topology, combinatorics, and information security. He also maintains an active role in gifted-and-talented programmes for secondary school students.
Benjamin Burton's research involves a blend of techniques from pure mathematics and computer science. His main interest is in computational geometry and topology in three and four dimensions, looking at problems such as how a computer can recognise whether a loop of string is knotted, or how it can identify large-scale geometric structures in a three-dimensional space. He is the primary author of the open source software package Regina, which implements state-of-the-art algorithms in this field.
His multi-disciplinary background includes a PhD in geometry and topology, an honours degree in combinatorics, research experience in information security, and three years as a research analyst in the finance industry. He has worked at several universities in Australia and overseas.
He maintains a strong interest in enrichment programmes for gifted and talented high school students, including the Mathematics and Informatics Olympiads and the National Mathematics Summer School. From 1999 until 2008 he directed the Australian training programme for the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI), and from 2009 to 2014 he holds a seat on the international IOI Scientific Committee.
Benjamin is an active member of the UQ Ally Network, an award-winning program that supports and celebrates diversity of sexuality, gender and sex at UQ and in the broader community.
Book Chapter
Burton, Benjamin A. (2013). Computational topology with regina: algorithms, heuristics and implementations. Geometry and topology down under: a conference in honour of Hyam Rubinstein. (pp. 195-224) edited by Craig D. Hodgson, William H. Jaco, Martin G. Scharlemann and Stephan Tillmann. Providence, RI, United States: American Mathematical Society. doi: 10.1090/conm/597/11877
Journal Articles
Brand, Jack, Burton, Benjamin A., Dancso, Zsuzsanna, He, Alexander, Jackson, Adele and Licata, Joan (2024). Arc diagrams on 3-manifold spines. Discrete and Computational Geometry, 71 (4), 1190-1209. doi: 10.1007/s00454-023-00539-4
Burton, Benjamin A., Chang, Hsien-Chih, Löffler, Maarten, Maria, Clément, de Mesmay, Arnaud, Schleimer, Saul, Sedgwick, Eric and Spreer, Jonathan (2023). Hard Diagrams of the Unknot. Experimental Mathematics, 33 (3), 1-19. doi: 10.1080/10586458.2022.2161676
Burton, Benjamin A., Datta, Basudeb and Spreer, Jonathan (2022). Flip graphs of stacked and flag triangulations of the 2-sphere. Electronic Journal of Combinatorics, 29 (2) P2.6. doi: 10.37236/10292
Burton, Benjamin (2022). Foreword. Olympiads in Informatics, 16, 1-2. doi: 10.15388/ioi.2022.00
Burton, Benjamin A. and He, Alexander (2021). On the hardness of finding normal surfaces. Journal of Applied and Computational Topology, 5 (4), 583-619. doi: 10.1007/s41468-021-00076-0
Budney, Ryan and Burton, Benjamin A. (2020). Embeddings of 3-Manifolds in S4 from the Point of View of the 11-Tetrahedron Census. Experimental Mathematics, 31 (3), 1-26. doi: 10.1080/10586458.2020.1740836
Burton, Benjamin, Cabello, Sergio, Kratsch, Stefan and Pettersson, William (2019). The parameterized complexity of finding a 2-sphere in a simplicial complex. SIAM Journal on Discrete Mathematics, 33 (4), 2092-2110. doi: 10.1137/18M1168704
Burton, Benjamin A., Maria, Clément and Spreer, Jonathan (2018). Algorithms and complexity for Turaev–Viro invariants. Journal of Applied and Computational Topology, 2 (1-2), 33-53. doi: 10.1007/s41468-018-0016-2
Burton, Benjamin A. and Downey, Rodney G. (2016). Courcelle's theorem for triangulations. Journal of Combinatorial Theory. Series A, 146, 264-294. doi: 10.1016/j.jcta.2016.10.001
Burton, Benjamin A., Datta, Basudeb, Singh, Nitin and Spreer, Jonathan (2016). A construction principle for tight and minimal triangulations of manifolds. Experimental Mathematics, 27 (1), 22-36. doi: 10.1080/10586458.2016.1212747
Burton, Benjamin and Spreer, Jonathan (2016). Combinatorial Seifert fibred spaces with transitive cyclic automorphism group. Israel Journal of Mathematics, 214 (2), 741-784. doi: 10.1007/s11856-016-1330-9
Burton, Benjamin A., de Verdière, Éric Colin and de Mesmay, Arnaud (2016). On the complexity of immersed normal surfaces. Geometry and Topology, 20 (2), 1061-1083. doi: 10.2140/gt.2016.20.1061
Burton, Benjamin A., Lewiner, Thomas, Paixao, Joao and Spreer, Jonathan (2016). Parameterized complexity of discrete Morse theory. ACM Transactions On Mathematical Software, 42 (1) 2738034, 6:1-6:24. doi: 10.1145/2738034
Burton, Benjamin A., Elder, Murray, Kalka, Arkadius and Tillmann, Stephan (2016). 2-manifold recognition is in logspace. Journal of Computational Geometry, 7 (1), 70-85.
Burton, Benjamin, Datta, Basudeb, Singh, Nitin and Spreer, Jonathan (2015). Separation index of graphs and stacked 2-spheres. Journal of Combinatorial Theory. Series A, 136, 184-197. doi: 10.1016/j.jcta.2015.07.001
Burton, Benjamin A. (2014). A new approach to crushing 3-manifold triangulations. Discrete and Computational Geometry, 52 (1), 116-139. doi: 10.1007/s00454-014-9572-y
Burton, Benjamin A. (2014). A duplicate pair in the SnapPea census. Experimental Mathematics, 23 (2), 170-173. doi: 10.1080/10586458.2014.886535
Ozlen, Melih, Burton, Benjamin A. and MacRae, Cameron A. G. (2014). Multi-objective integer programming: an improved recursive algorithm. Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, 160 (2), 470-482. doi: 10.1007/s10957-013-0364-y
Ozlen, Melih, Azizoglu, Meral and Burton, Benjamin A. (2013). Optimising a nonlinear utility function in multi-objective integer programming. Journal of Global Optimization, 56 (1), 93-102. doi: 10.1007/s10898-012-9921-4
Burton, Benjamin A. and Hiron, Mathias (2013). Locating regions in a sequence under density constraints. SIAM Journal on Computing, 42 (3), 1201-1215. doi: 10.1137/110830605
Burton, Benjamin A. and Ozlen, Melih (2012). Computing the crosscap number of a knot using integer programming and normal surfaces. ACM Transactions On Mathematical Software, 39 (1) 4, 4.1-4.18. doi: 10.1145/2382585.2382589
Burton, Benjamin A., Rubinstein, J. Hyam and Tillmann, Stephan (2012). The Weber-Seifert dodecahedral space is non-Haken. Transactions of the American Mathematical Society, 364 (2), 911-932. doi: 10.1090/S0002-9947-2011-05419-X
Burton, Benjamin A. (2012). Pachner moves, generic complexity, and randomising 3-manifold triangulations. Oberwolfach Reports, 9 (2), 1412-1414. doi: 10.4171/OWR/2012/24
Budney, Ryan, Burton, Benjamin A. and Hillman, Jonathan (2012). Triangulating a Cappell-Shaneson knot complement. Mathematical Research Letters, 19 (5), 1117-1126. doi: 10.4310/MRL.2012.v19.n5.a12
Burton, Benjamin A. (2011). Searching a bitstream in linear time for the longest substring of any given density. Algorithmica, 61 (3), 555-579. doi: 10.1007/s00453-010-9424-y
Burton, Benjamin A. (2011). Maximal admissible faces and asymptotic bounds for the normal surface solution space. Journal of Combinatorial Theory: Series A, 118 (4), 1410-1435. doi: 10.1016/j.jcta.2010.12.011
Burton, Benjamin A. (2010). Optimizing the double description method for normal surface enumeration. Mathematics of Computation, 79 (269), 453-484. doi: 10.1090/S0025-5718-09-02282-0
Burton, Benjamin A. (2010). A mathematician reflecting on the International Olympiad in Informatics. Australian Mathematical Society Gazette, 37 (1), 15-21.
Burton, Benjamin A. (2010). Quadrilateral-octagon coordinates for almost normal surfaces. Experimental Mathematics, 19 (3), 285-315. doi: 10.1080/10586458.2010.10390625
Pohl, Wolfgang, Burton, Benjamin A., Dagienė, Valentina, Fakcharoenphol, Jittat, Forišek, Michal, Hiron, Mathias, Opmanis, Mārtiņš, Skūpas, Bronius and van der Vegt, Willem (2010). Get involved! The IOI workshop 2010, its goals and results. Olympiads in Informatics, 4, 158-169.
Burton, Benjamin A. (2009). Converting between quadrilateral and standard solution sets in normal surface theory. Algebraic and Geometric Topology, 9 (4), 2121-2174. doi: 10.2140/agt.2009.9.2121
Burton, Benjamin A. (2008). Breaking the routine: Events to complement informatics olympiad training. Olympiads in Informatics, 2, 5-15.
Burton, Benjamin A. and Hiron, Mathias (2008). Creating informatics olympiad tasks: Exploring the black art. Olympiads in Informatics, 2, 16-36.
Burton, Benjamin A. (2007). Enumeration of non-orientable 3-manifolds using face-pairing graphs and union-find. Discrete and Computational Geometry, 38 (3), 527-571. doi: 10.1007/s00454-007-1307-x
Burton, Benjamin A. (2007). Informatics olympiads: Approaching mathematics through code. Mathematics Competitions, 20 (2), 29-51.
Burton, Benjamin A. (2007). Observations from the 8-tetrahedron nonorientable census. Experimental Mathematics, 16 (2), 129-144. doi: 10.1080/10586458.2007.10128994
Burton, Benjamin A. (2007). Structures of small closed non-orientable 3-manifold triangulations. Journal of Knot Theory and Its Ramifications, 16 (5), 545-574. doi: 10.1142/S0218216507005439
Burton, Benjamin A. (2004). Efficient enumeration of 3-manifold triangulations. The Australian Mathematical Society Gazette, 31 (2), 111-117.
Burton, Benjamin A. (2004). Face pairing graphs and 3-manifold enumeration. Journal of Knot Theory and Its Ramifications (JKTR), 13 (8), 1057-1101. doi: 10.1142/S0218216504003627
Burton, Benjamin A. (2004). Introducing Regina, the 3-manifold topology software. Experimental Mathematics, 13 (3), 267-272.
Conference Papers
Burton, Benjamin A. and He, Alexander (2023). Finding large counterexamples by selectively exploring the Pachner graph. Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG), Dallas, TX, United States, 12-15 June 2023. Wadern, Germany: Schloss Dagstuhl - Leibniz-Zentrum fuer Informatik. doi: 10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2023.21
Burton, Benjamin A. (2020). The next 350 million knots. 36th International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2020), Zürich, Switzerland, 23-26 June 2020. Wadern, Germany: Schloss Dagstuhl- Leibniz-Zentrum fur Informatik GmbH. doi: 10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2020.25
Bodlaender, Hans L., Burton, Benjamin, Fomin, Fedor V. and Grigoriev, Alexander (2020). Knot Diagrams of Treewidth Two. 46th International Workshop on Graph-Theoretic Concepts in Computer Science (WG 2020), Online, 24–26 June 2020. Heidelberg, Germany: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-60440-0_7
Burton, Benjamin A. (2018). The HOMFLY-PT polynomial is fixed-parameter tractable. 34th International Symposium on Computational Geometry, SoCG 2018, Budapest, Hungary, 11-14 June 2018. Wadern, Germany: Schloss Dagstuhl- Leibniz-Zentrum fur Informatik GmbH, Dagstuhl Publishing. doi: 10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2018.18
Burton, Benjamin A., de Mesmay, Arnaud and Wagner, Uli (2017). Finding Non-orientable Surfaces in 3-Manifolds. 32nd Annual ACM International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG), Boston Ma, Jun 14-17, 2016. New York, NY United States: Springer New York. doi: 10.1007/s00454-017-9900-0
Burton, Benjamin, Chambers, Erin, Van Kreveld, Marc, Meulemans, Wouter, Ophelders, Tim and Speckmann, Bettina (2017). Computing optimal homotopies over a spiked plane with polygonal boundary. 25th European Symposium on Algorithms, ESA 2017, Vienna, Austria, 4-6 September 2017. Wadern, Germany: Schloss Dagstuhl - Leibniz-Zentrum fur Informatik GmbH. doi: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2017.23
Boztas, Serdar and Burton, Benjamin A. (2017). Randomness testing and comparison of classical and quantum bit generators. 2017 IEEE Symposium on Computers and Communications (ISCC), , Heraklion, Greece, 3-6 July 2017. Piscataway, NJ United States: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers . doi: 10.1109/ISCC.2017.8024660
Burton, Benjamin, Cabello, Sergio, Kratsch, Stefan and Pettersson, William (2017). The parameterized complexity of finding a 2-sphere in a simplicial complex. 34th Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science, STACS 2017, Hannover, Germany, 8 - 11 March 2017. Wadern, Germany: Schloss Dagstuhl- Leibniz-Zentrum fur Informatik GmbH. doi: 10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2017.18
Bagchi, Bhaskar, Datta, Basudeb, Burton, Benjamin A., Singh, Nitin and Spreer, Jonathan (2016). Efficient algorithms to decide tightness. International Symposium on Computational Geometry, Boston, MA, United States, 14-18 June 2016. Wadern, Germany: Schloss Dagstuhl - Leibniz-Zentrum fuer Informatik. doi: 10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2016.12
Burton, Benjamin A., de Mesmay, Arnaud and Wagner, Uli (2016). Finding non-orientable surfaces in 3-manifolds. International Symposium on Computational Geometry, Boston, MA, United States, 14-17 June 2016. Wadern, Germany: Schloss Dagstuhl - Leibniz-Zentrum fuer Informatik. doi: 10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2016.24
Burton, Benjamin A., Maria, Clément and Spreer, Jonathan (2015). Algorithms and complexity for Turaev-Viro invariants. International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming, Kyoto, Japan, 6-10 June 2015. Heidelberg, Germany: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-3-662-47672-7_23
Kawauchi, Akio, Tayama, Ikuo and Burton, Benjamin (2015). Tabulation of 3-manifolds of lengths up to 10. International Conference on Topology and Geometry 2013, joint with the Sixth Japan-Mexico Topology Symposium, Matsue, Japan, September 2-6, 2013. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier BV. doi: 10.1016/j.topol.2015.05.036
Burton, Benjamin A. and Pettersson, William (2015). An edge-based framework for enumerating 3-manifold triangulations. International Symposium on Computational Geometry, Eindhoven, Netherlands, 22-25 June 2015. Wadern, Germany: Schloss Dagstuhl- Leibniz-Zentrum fur Informatik GmbH, Dagstuhl Publishing. doi: 10.4230/LIPIcs.SOCG.2015.270
Burton, Benjamin A. (2014). Enumerating fundamental normal surfaces: algorithms, experiments and invariants. 16th Workshop on Algorithm Engineering and Experiments (ALENEX14), Portland, United States, 5 January 2014. Philadelphia, United States: Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM). doi: 10.1137/1.9781611973198.11
Burton, Benjamin A. and Pettersson, William (2014). Fixed parameter tractable algorithms in combinatorial topology. 20th International Computing and Combinatorics Conference, COCOON 2014, Atlanta, GA United States, 2 - 6 August 2014. Heidelberg, Germany: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-08783-2_26
Burton, Benjamin A. (2014). Courcelle's theorem for triangulations. Workshop on Triangulations in Geometry and Topology. SoCG 2014: Computational Geometry Week 2014. The 30th Annual Symposium on Computational Geometry, Kyoto, Japan, 8-11 June, 2014. Ithaca, NY, USA: Cornell University Library.
Burton, Benjamin A. (2013). A new approach to crushing 3-manifold triangulations. SoCG '13: Symposium on Computational Geometry 2013, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 17 - 20 June 2013. New York, NY United States: Association for Computing Machinery. doi: 10.1145/2493132.2462409
Burton, Benjamin A. and Ozlen, Melih (2013). A tree traversal algorithm for decision problems in knot theory and 3-manifold topology. Secaucus, NJ, United States: Springer. doi: 10.1007/s00453-012-9645-3
Burton, Benjamin A., Coward, Alexander and Tillmann, Stephen (2013). Computing closed essential surfaces in knot complements. 29th Annual Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2013), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 17-20 June 2013. New York, NY United States: Association for Computing Machinery Inc.. doi: 10.1145/2462356.2462380
Burton, Benjamin A. (2013). A new approach to crushing 3-manifold triangulations. 29th Annual Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2013), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 17-20 June 2013. New York, NY United States: Association for Computing Machinery Inc.. doi: 10.1145/2462356.2462409
Burton, Benjamin and Spreer, Jonathan (2013). Computationally proving triangulated 4-manifolds to be diffeomorphic. 29th ACM Symposium on Computational Geometry,, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 17 - 20 June 2013.
Burton, Benjamin A., Lewiner, Thomas, Paixao, Joao and Spreer, Jonathan (2013). Parameterized complexity of discrete morse theory. 29th Annual Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2013), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 17-20 June 2013. New York, NY, United States: Association for Computing Machinery Inc.. doi: 10.1145/2462356.2462391
Burton, Benjamin and Spreer, Jonathan (2013). The complexity of detecting taut angle structures on triangulations. 24th ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms (SODA 2013), New Orleans, United States, 6-9 January 2013. Philadelphia, United States: Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. doi: 10.1137/1.9781611973105.13
Burton, Benjamin A., Coward, Alexander and Tillmann, Stephan (2013). Computing closed essential surfaces in knot complements. SoCG '13: Symposium on Computational Geometry 2013, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 17 - 20 June 2013. New York, NY United States: Association for Computing Machinery. doi: 10.1145/2493132.2462380
Burton, Benjamin, Paixao, Joao and Spreer, Jonathan (2012). Computational topology and normal surfaces: theoretical and experimental complexity bounds. Meeting on Algorithm Engineering and Experiments (ALENEX13), New Orleans, United States, 7 January 2013. Philadelphia, United States: Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. doi: 10.1137/1.9781611972931.7
Burton, Benjamin A. (2012). Complementary vertices and adjacency testing in polytopes. 18th Annual International Computing and Combinatorics Conference (COCOON 2012), Sydney, Australia, 20-22 August 2012. Heidelberg, Germany: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-32241-9_43
Burton, Benjamin A. (2011). Detecting genus in vertex links for the fast enumeration of 3-manifold triangulations. 36th International Symposium on Symbolic and Algebraic Computation [ISSAC], San Jose, CA, United States, 8-11 June 2011. New York, NY, United States: ACM Press. doi: 10.1145/1993886.1993901
Burton, Benjamin A. (2011). The Pachner graph and the simplification of 3-sphere triangulations. 27th ACM Symposium on Computational Geometry [SoCG], Paris, France, 13-15 June 2011. New York, NY, U.S.A.: ACM. doi: 10.1145/1998196.1998220
Burton, Benjamin A. and Ozlen, Melih (2011). A tree traversal algorithm for decision problems in knot theory and 3-manifold topology. 27th Annual Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2011), Paris, France, 13-15 June 2011. New York, NY, United States: ACM Press. doi: 10.1145/1998196.1998219
Burton, Benjamin A. (2010). Encouraging algorithmic thinking without a computer. Lithuania: Institute of Mathematics and Informatics.
Burton, Benjamin A. (2010). The complexity of the normal surface solution space. 26th ACM Symposium on Computational Geometry [SCG], Snowbird, Utah, U.S.A., 13-16 June 2010. New York , U.S.A.: ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) Press. doi: 10.1145/1810959.1810995
Burton, Benjamin A. and Hiron, Mathias (2008). Creating informatics olympiad tasks: Exploring the black art. International Conference Joint with the 20th International Olympiad in Informatics, IOI 2008, Cairo, Egypt, 16 - 23 August 2008. Vilnius University.
Burton, Benjamin A. (2008). Breaking the routine: Events to complement informatics olympiad training. International Conference Joint with the 20th International Olympiad in Informatics, IOI 2008, Cairo, Egypt, 16 - 23 August 2008. Vilnius University.
Burton, Benjamin A. (2008). Informatics Olympiads: Challenges in programming and algorithm design. Thirty-First Australasian Computer Science Conference (ACSC 2008), Wollongong, NSW, Australia, 22-25 Jan 2008. Sydney, Australia: Australian Computer Society (ACS).
Sundaram, Shrikant, Bertok, Peter and Burton, Benjamin (2005). Secure group communication with distributed generation of private keys for ad-hoc networks. IFIP TC11 20th IFIP International Information Security Conference, Chiba, Japan, 3 May- 1 Jun 2005. New York, USA: Springer. doi: 10.1007/0-387-25660-1_31
Data Collection
Burton, Benjamin (2019). Tabulation of knots and 3-manifolds. The University of Queensland. (Dataset) doi: 10.48610/3bb4c69