Hal Kierstead

H. A. Kierstead - Hal Kierstead's research is in the area of graph theory, especially graph coloring. This is a way of modeling the problem of partitioning a set of objects having some internal conflicts into a small number of conflict-free parts. It has many applications in computer science and operations research, including flight scheduling, bandwidth allocation and register allocation, as well as deep theoretical interest. Much of this work involves finding efficient algorithms for attacking partition problems presented with incomplete information, possibly because assignment decisions must be made online before all objects are known, or because another processor is making apparently arbitrary decisions. These situations require competitive analysis expressed in terms of mathematical games. Hal Kierstead has published more than 100 articles on related subjects.