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Kevin Purbhoo

Associate Professor of Combinatorics & Optimization, University of Waterloo; former two-time IMO medalist for Canada
University of Waterloo · Waterloo, Ontario, Canada · academic
math.uwaterloo.ca
PhD UC Berkeley 2004; Associate Professor At WaterlooIMO Bronze Medalist For Canada 1993 & 19941994 Canadian Mathematical Olympiad Winner

Kevin Purbhoo is an Associate Professor in the Department of Combinatorics and Optimization at the University of Waterloo, working in enumerative algebraic geometry, algebraic combinatorics and representation theory. He competed for Canada at the International Mathematical Olympiad in 1993 and 1994 (bronze medals both years) and won the 1994 Canadian Mathematical Olympiad while still in high school. He earned his PhD at UC Berkeley in 2004 and has published steadily through 2024 on Schubert calculus, Wronskians, tableaux and matroid categories.

Kevin Purbhoo, Associate Professor, Combinatorics & Optimization, University of Waterloo. Two-time IMO medalist for Canada (1993, 1994), 1994 CMO winner; PhD UC Berkeley 2004; research in enumerative algebraic geometry and algebraic combinatorics.

Details
LocationWaterloo, Ontario, Canada
Company siteuwaterloo.ca
UniversityUniversity of California, Berkeley
algebraic geometryalgebraic combinatoricsrepresentation theoryenumerative geometrySchubert calculusjeu de taquinYoung tableauxreal Schubert calculusLaTeX
Notes
  • Earned a PhD in mathematics at UC Berkeley (2004) before joining the University of Waterloo, where he is now Associate Professor of Combinatorics & Optimization — a US top-tier doctorate followed by a permanent Canadian faculty post.Jan 1, 2004
  • Won 1st place at the 1994 Canadian Mathematical Olympiad (Northern Secondary School, Toronto) and made Canada's IMO team in 1993 and 1994, earning bronze both years (rank 133/68.0% in 1993; rank 95/75.6% in 1994) — a high-school mathematical trajectory that directly preceded a research career in combinatorics.Jun 1, 1994
  • Contact details openly published: [contact omitted], 519-888-4567 x45135, office MC 5122 — reachable directly, unusual for a public web profile.Sep 11, 2024
  • Publishes steadily through 2024 (e.g. 'Rigid matroid categories', arXiv 2403.03365; 'Folding rotationally symmetric tableaux via webs' with Shelley Wu, Annals of Combinatorics 28, 2024), so the research program is active rather than winding down.May 1, 2024
  • Recurring co-authors/collaborators include Steven N. Karp, Frank Sottile, Maria Gillespie and Jake Levinson, clustering around real Schubert calculus and positivity — his stable collaboration network.Jan 1, 2024
  • No verified LinkedIn, X/Twitter, GitHub or blog presence surfaced despite targeted name searches — his public footprint is almost entirely academic (department pages, arXiv/papers, Math Genealogy), with Mauritius-based namesakes dominating social-search results.Sep 11, 2026
  • Authored the open-source LaTeX package 'young' for Young tableaux and gave public undergraduate YouTube lectures on jeu de taquin (June 2012) — signals outreach/tooling beyond pure publication.Jun 1, 2012
  • Carries a broad teaching load across the CO/Math curriculum (CO 430/630, CO 434/634, Math 239/245/249 …) alongside research, consistent with a standard research-and-teaching faculty role at Waterloo.Sep 1, 2023
  • RateMyProfessors: 4.3/5 overall, 75% would take again, 20 ratings (difficulty 3.5) — a strong student-instructor reputation.Jun 23, 2026

Competition record

Canada · IMO

1993 · Bronze · Rank 1331994 · Bronze · Rank 95