Dr Jennie C Hansen

• Deputy Head of Actuarial Mathematics and Statistics
• 4th Year Director of Studies

I teach courses in probability theory, stochastic processes, and statistics. I am a member of the Probability and Statistics research group (Chan, Cruise, Foss, Gibson, Shneer, Streftaris, Zachary) within the school.

My principal research area is probability theory and its applications in combinatorics and computer science. In particular, I am interested in random combinatorial structures, random combinatorial optimisation problems, and the probabilistic analysis of algorithms.

Recently, I have been working with Jerzy Jaworski (Adam Mickiewcz University, Poznan) on the development of a calculus for the distributions of various graphical properties of the directed graphs that represent random mappings with exchangeable in-degrees. Using this calculus, we can investigate, for example, epidemic thresholds on such graphs. This work was supported by Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowships under Framework 6 and 7.

I have also worked on problems in

• random geometry
• the analysis of algorithms for random combinatorial optimization problems
• graph colouring algorithms
• the stability of processor sharing networks

• A random mapping with preferential attachment , with Jerzy Jaworski. Random Structures and Algorithms, 34, (2009), 87-111
• Local Properties of Random Mappings with Exchangeable In-degrees, with Jerzy Jaworski. Advances in Applied Probability, 40, (2008), 183- 205
• Covering Random Points in a Unit Ball, with Eric Schmutz and Li Sheng. Advances in Applied Probability, 40, (2008), 22-30.
• Random mappings with exchangeable in-degrees, with Jerzy Jaworski. Random Structures and Algorithms, 33, (2008), 105-126
• Stability of processor sharing networks with simultaneous resource requirements, with Cian Reynolds and Stan Zachary. Journal of Applied Probability, 44, (2007), 636-651

Other Selected Publications' at my personal website.

I was an undergraduate at Carleton College (Minneosta), where I graduated Magna Cum Laude with Distinction in Mathematics. I then studied at Warwick University as a Marshall Scholar where I completed an M.Sc. in Pure Mathematics. I returned to the US and completed a PhD in probability theory at the University of Minnesota under Bert Fristedt’s supervision. Since completing my PhD, I have worked at Tufts University, Northeastern University, and Heriot-Watt (since 1992).

I have collaborated on a number of research papers with Eric Schmutz (Drexel) and Jerzy Jaworski (Poznan). Thanks to my collaborator Eric Schmutz, my Erdos number is 2.

I am very happy to discuss problems in combinatorial  probability theory and in the analysis of algorithms with other researchers from both industry and academia.