In systems with a great deal of symmetry, dealing with a million variables can be as easy as dealing with ten.

Rob Eggermont is an assistant professor with the research group Discrete Mathematics at the TU/e department of Mathematics and Computer Science. He is a member of the group for Discrete Algebra and Geometry, which plays a leading role in algebraic graph theory, finite and incidence geometry, and discrete Lie theory. His research focuses on finiteness properties in settings of variable or infinite dimension with symmetry, as well as the general theory and structure of these settings, as well as algorithms and their practical applications.

No matter the number of coefficients in a matrix, one can state whether or not the matrix has rank at most one. In the same way, in the setting of algebraic geometry many varieties can be described independent of the number of variables. It turns out that many of these varieties can be described by finitely many equations up to symmetry, again independent of the number of variables. If said equations can be found, this allows for algorithms that test membership of such a variety in polynomial time. This has applications in many fields, such as phylogenetics, chemistry, and algebraic statistics.

Rob Eggermont received his MSc in Mathematics from Leiden University (The Netherlands) in 2011, with the distinction cum laude. He did his PhD at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e, the Netherlands) where he graduated cum laude in August 2015. After being a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Michigan until July 2017, he returned to TU/e to become an assistant professor (tenure track) in the research group Discrete Mathematics at the department of Mathematics and Computer Science.

Rob Eggermont has published in a wide selection leading journals, such as Algebra Number Theory and Linear Algebra Appl. He has given talks at multiple editions of the DIAMANT symposium, Intercity Number Theory Seminar and at the Summer School 'An Interdisciplinary Approach to Tensor Decomposition'. He has also participated in a wide range of schools and workshops, including AIM workshop on 'Representation stability' (San Jose, 2016), BIRS workshop on 'Free Resolutions, Representations, and Asymptotic Algebra' (Banff, 2016), Summer School on 'An Interdisciplinary Approach to Tensor Decomposition' (Trento, 2014) and CIME-CIRM Course on Combinatorial Algebraic Geometry (Levico Terme, 2013). Rob was awarded the Jong Talent Aanmoedigingsprijs, 2007, an award for the best first year student in mathematics in Leiden.