{"id":29,"date":"2016-12-31T13:00:58","date_gmt":"2016-12-31T18:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sciencescosmaincms.cm.ucf.edu\/math\/zxsong\/?page_id=29"},"modified":"2026-03-26T13:32:55","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T17:32:55","slug":"students","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/math\/zxsong\/students\/","title":{"rendered":"Students"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Doctoral Students:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/csm.kennesaw.edu\/mathematics\/faculty-staff.php\"><strong><em>Martin Rolek:<\/em><\/strong><\/a> graduated in April 2017 within 5 years, Assistant Professor (tenure-track), Kennesaw State University<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Dissertation:\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/stars.library.ucf.edu\/cgi\/viewcontent.cgi?article=6400&amp;context=etd\"><strong>Coloring Graphs with Forbidden Minors<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Publication 1:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/math\/zxsong\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2018\/04\/Coloring-graphs-with-forbidden-minors.pdf\"><strong>Coloring graphs with forbidden minor<\/strong>s<\/a> (with Zi-Xia Song), J. Combinatorial Theory, Ser. B 127 (2017) 14-31.<\/li>\n<li>Publication 2: <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/math\/zxsong\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2018\/04\/Double-critical-graph-conjecture-for-claw-free-graphs.pdf\">Double-critical graph conjecture for claw-free graphs<\/a> <\/strong>(with Zi-Xia Song), Discrete Mathematics 340 (2017) 1633-1638.<\/li>\n<li>Publication 3: <a href=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/math\/zxsong\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2019\/01\/K3Tk.pdf\"><strong>Saturation numbers of Ramsey-minimal graphs<\/strong><\/a> (with Zi-Xia Song), Discrete Mathematics 341 (2018) 3310-3320.<\/li>\n<li>Publication 4:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/math\/zxsong\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2018\/04\/Clique-minors-in-double-critical-graphs.pdf\"><strong>Clique minors in double-critical graphs<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0(with Zi-Xia Song), J. Graph Theory 88 (2018) 347-355.<\/li>\n<li>Publication 5: <a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2208.07335\"><strong>Properties of 8-contraction-critical graphs with no K7 minor<\/strong><\/a> (with Zi-Xia Song and Robin Thomas), \u00a0European Journal of Combinatorics 110 (2023), 103711.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/math\/person\/christian-bosse\/\"><strong><em>Christian Bosse:<\/em><\/strong><\/a> graduated in July 2019 within 5 years, Department of Defense, DC<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Dissertation:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/stars.library.ucf.edu\/cgi\/viewcontent.cgi?article=7455&amp;context=etd\"><strong> Hadwiger Numbers &amp; Gallai-Ramsey Numbers of Special Graphs<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Publication: <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0012365X19302493\">A note on Hadwiger&#8217;s Conjecture for W5-free graphs with independence number two<\/a><\/strong>, Discrete Mathematics 342 (2019) 111595.<\/li>\n<li>Preprint 1:<strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/1808.09963\">Improved upper bounds for Gallai-Ramsey numbers of odd cycles<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong> (with Zi-Xia Song and Jingmei Zhang),\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/1808.09963\">arXiv:1808.09963<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Preprint 2: <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/math\/zxsong\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2018\/04\/Multicolor-Gallai-Ramsey-numbers-of-C9-and-C11.pdf\">Multicolor Gallai-Ramsey numbers of C9 and C11<\/a> <\/strong>(with Zi-Xia Song),\u00a0 <span class=\"list-identifier\"><a title=\"Abstract\" href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/1802.06503\">arXiv:1802.06503<\/a>.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/math\/person\/jingmei-zhang\/\"><strong><em>Jingmei Zhang:<\/em><\/strong><\/a> graduated in July 2019 within 5 years, High school affiliated to the Southern University of Science &amp; Technology of China<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Dissertation:\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/stars.library.ucf.edu\/cgi\/viewcontent.cgi?article=7597&amp;context=etd\"><strong>Two Ramsey-related Problems<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Publication 1:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.combinatorics.org\/ojs\/index.php\/eljc\/article\/view\/v28i1p13\"><strong>On the size of (Kt, Tk)-co-critical graphs<\/strong><\/a> (with Zi-Xia Song),\u00a0 \u00a0The Electronic Journal of Combinatorics 28(1) (2021), #P1.13.<\/li>\n<li>Publication 2:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2109.00466\"><strong>On the size of special class 1 graphs and (P3;k)-co-critical graphs<\/strong><\/a> (with Gang Chen, Zhengke Miao, Zi-Xia Song),\u00a0 Discrete Mathematics 344 (2021), 112604.<\/li>\n<li>Publication 3:<strong>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/ajc.maths.uq.edu.au\/pdf\/79\/ajc_v79_p380.pdf\">Multicolor Gallai-Ramsey numbers of C10 and C12<\/a><\/strong> (with H. Lei, Y.\u00a0 Shi,\u00a0 Zi-Xia Song),\u00a0 Australian Journal of Combinatorics 79 (2021) 380-400.<\/li>\n<li>Publication 4: <a href=\"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/article\/10.1007\/s00373-022-02531-w\"><strong>On the size of (Kt, path)-co-critical graphs<\/strong><\/a> (with Gang Chen, Zhengke Miao, Zi-Xia Song), Graphs and Combinatorics 38 (2022), 136.<\/li>\n<li>Preprint:<strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/1808.09963\">Improved upper bounds for Gallai-Ramsey numbers of odd cycles<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong> (with Zi-Xia Song and Jingmei Zhang),\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/1808.09963\">arXiv:1808.09963<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/excel.ucf.edu\/person\/michael-lafferty\/\"><strong>Michael Lafferty:<\/strong><\/a> graduated in <\/em>April 2024 within 6 years, Visiting Assistant Professor, William &amp; Mary (since Fall 2024)<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Dissertation:\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/stars.library.ucf.edu\/etd2023\/66\/\"><strong>Extremal Functions for K_t^{-s} Minors and Coloring Graphs with no K_t^{-s} Minor<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Publication:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2202.02586\"><strong>A note on odd colorings of 1-planar graphs<\/strong><\/a> (with Dan Cranston and Zi-Xia Song), Discrete Applied Mathematics <span class=\"anchor-text\">330 (<\/span>2023) 112-117.<\/li>\n<li>Preprint 1:<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2208.07338\">Every graph with no K8-4e minor is 7-colorable<\/a><\/strong> (with Zi-Xia Song), submitted. <span class=\"arxivid\"><a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2208.07338\">arXiv:2208.07338<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li>Preprint 2: <a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2209.05259\"><strong>Every graph with no K9-6e minor is 8-colorable<\/strong>\u00a0<\/a>(with Zi-Xia Song), submitted. <span class=\"arxivid\"><a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2209.05259\">arXiv:2209.05259<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/michael-scully-27039551\">Michael Scully<\/a>, <\/strong><\/em>April\u00a0 2027 (expected, within 6 years), currently Senior Data Scientist and VP at Citizens Bank (since August 2025)<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Dissertation: TBA<\/li>\n<li>Preprint:<strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2510.12564\">Dominating Hadwiger&#8217;s Conjecture for graphs with independence number two<\/a><\/strong> (with Zi-Xia Song), <span class=\"arxivid\"><a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2510.12564\">arXiv:2510.12564<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5>M. Sc. Students:<\/h5>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pluralsight.com\/authors\/aj-foster\"><em><strong>Austin J. Foster <\/strong><\/em><\/a>(July 2016<strong>, <\/strong>Software Engineer \/ Developer, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pluralsight.com\/\">PLURALSIGHT<\/a>)<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Thesis:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/stars.library.ucf.edu\/cgi\/viewcontent.cgi?article=6133&amp;context=etd\"><strong> Interval Edge-colorings of Graphs<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><strong>Undergraduate Students:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/honors.ucf.edu\/hut\/admissions\/\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff\">Honors Undergraduate Thesis<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/h5>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/dkbruce\"><em>Dylan Bruce:<\/em><\/a><\/strong> April 2017, \u00a0Ph.D. student at North Carolina State University<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Thesis:\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/stars.library.ucf.edu\/cgi\/viewcontent.cgi?article=1198&amp;context=honorstheses\"><strong>Gallai-Ramsey Number for C7 with Multiple Colors<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Paper: \u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/math\/zxsong\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2019\/01\/GRC7.pdf\"><strong>Gallai-Ramsey numbers of C7<\/strong> <strong>with multiple colors<\/strong><\/a> (with Zi-Xia Song), Discrete Mathematics 342 (2019) 1191-1194.<\/li>\n<li>Winner of Honors Undergraduate Thesis (HUT) Scholarship<\/li>\n<li>Winner of the <strong>Judge&#8217;s Choice Award<\/strong> at the UCF Showcase of Undergraduate Research Excellence, 2017.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colorado.edu\/math\/hunter-davenport\"><em><strong>Hunter Davenport: <\/strong><\/em><\/a>April 2018, Ph.D. student at the University of Colorado Boulder<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Thesis: <a href=\"https:\/\/stars.library.ucf.edu\/cgi\/viewcontent.cgi?article=1198&amp;context=honorstheses\"><strong>On Saturation Numbers for Ramsey-minimal Graphs<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Paper:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2104.13898\"><strong>On the size of (Kt,star)-co-critical graphs<\/strong><\/a> (with Zi-Xia Song and Fan Yang),\u00a0 European Journal of Combinatorics 104 (2022), 103533.<\/li>\n<li>Winner of Honors Undergraduate Thesis (HUT) Scholarship<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.seas.harvard.edu\/computer-science\/people?search=&amp;page=%2C11\"><em><strong>Jake Ruotolo:<\/strong><\/em><\/a> April 2022, Ph.D. student at Harvard University<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Thesis: <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/stars.library.ucf.edu\/cgi\/viewcontent.cgi?article=2344&amp;context=honorstheses\">Multicolor Ramsey and List Ramsey Numbers for Double Stars<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Paper:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2211.03642\"><strong>Multicolor Ramsey number for double stars<\/strong><\/a> (with Zi-Xia Song),\u00a0 \u00a0Discrete Mathematics 347 (2024), 114034.<\/li>\n<li>Winner of Honors Undergraduate Thesis (HUT) Scholarship<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/uwaterloo.ca\/combinatorics-and-optimization\/contacts\/greg-decamillis\"><em><b>Gregory Decamillis:<\/b><\/em><\/a> April 2024, Ph.D. student at the University of Waterloo<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Thesis: <strong>Multicolor Bipartite Ramsey Number of Double Stars<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Paper: <a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2312.03670\"><strong>Multicolor bipartite Ramsey number of double stars <\/strong><\/a>(with Zi-Xia Song),\u00a0 submitted.\u00a0 \u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2312.03670\">arXiv:2312.03670<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Winner of Honors Undergraduate Thesis (HUT) Scholarship<\/li>\n<li>Winner of the Allyn M. Stearman Research Scholarship<\/li>\n<li>Winner of\u00a0 <em><b>Founders&#8217; Day <\/b><b>Outstanding Honors Undergraduate <span class=\"outlook-search-highlight\" data-markjs=\"true\">Thesis<\/span> Award <\/b>in Spring 2025<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em><b>Thomas Tibbetts\u00a0 \u00a0&#8211;\u00a0 <\/b><\/em>April\u00a0 2026 (expected)<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Thesis: TBA<\/li>\n<li>Preprint:<strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2510.12567\">Dominating Hadwiger&#8217;s Conjecture holds for all 2K2-free graphs<\/a><\/strong> (with Zi-Xia Song), <span class=\"arxivid\"><a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2510.12567\">arXiv:2510.12567<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li>Winner of the <strong>Distinguished Undergraduate Researcher Award<\/strong> for the month of January 2026 at UCF<\/li>\n<li>Winner of the <strong>Judge&#8217;s Choice Award<\/strong> at the Student Scholar Symposium at UCF, March 23-27, 2026.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><strong>Undergraduate Students: <\/strong>Directed \u00a0Research<\/h5>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/a\"><strong>Brian Thomas:<\/strong><\/a> April 2012, Ph.D. student at the University of Virginia<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/math\/zxsong\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2018\/04\/Hadwigers-conjecture-for-graphs-with-forbidden-holes.pdf\">Hadwiger\u2019s Conjecture for graphs with forbidden holes<\/a><\/strong> (with Zi-Xia Song), SIAM J. \u00a0Discrete Mathematics 31 (2017) 1572-1580.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/artsci.tamu.edu\/statistics\/contact\/profiles\/benjamin-snyder.html\">\u00a0Benjamin Snyder:<\/a> <\/strong>April 2024, Ph.D. student at Texas A&amp;M University<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2311.04800\"><strong>The minimum degree of <span id=\"MathJax-Element-1-Frame\" class=\"MathJax\"><span id=\"MathJax-Span-1\" class=\"math\"><span id=\"MathJax-Span-2\" class=\"mrow\"><span id=\"MathJax-Span-3\" class=\"mo\">(<\/span><span id=\"MathJax-Span-4\" class=\"msubsup\"><span id=\"MathJax-Span-5\" class=\"mi\">K<\/span><span id=\"MathJax-Span-6\" class=\"mi\">s<\/span><\/span><span id=\"MathJax-Span-7\" class=\"mo\">,<\/span><span id=\"MathJax-Span-8\" class=\"msubsup\"><span id=\"MathJax-Span-9\" class=\"mi\">K<\/span><span id=\"MathJax-Span-10\" class=\"mi\">t<\/span><\/span><span id=\"MathJax-Span-11\" class=\"mo\">)<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>-co-critical graphs<\/strong><\/a> (with Zi-Xia Song),\u00a0 submitted, \u00a0<span class=\"arxivid\"><a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2311.04800\">arXiv:2311.04800<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cse.umn.edu\/math\/ivan-casas-rocha\"><strong>Ivan Casas-Rocha:<\/strong><\/a> April 2025, Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2311.04800\"><strong>The minimum degree of <span id=\"MathJax-Element-1-Frame\" class=\"MathJax\"><span id=\"MathJax-Span-1\" class=\"math\"><span id=\"MathJax-Span-2\" class=\"mrow\"><span id=\"MathJax-Span-3\" class=\"mo\">(<\/span><span id=\"MathJax-Span-4\" class=\"msubsup\"><span id=\"MathJax-Span-5\" class=\"mi\">K<\/span><span id=\"MathJax-Span-6\" class=\"mi\">s<\/span><\/span><span id=\"MathJax-Span-7\" class=\"mo\">,<\/span><span id=\"MathJax-Span-8\" class=\"msubsup\"><span id=\"MathJax-Span-9\" class=\"mi\">K<\/span><span id=\"MathJax-Span-10\" class=\"mi\">t<\/span><\/span><span id=\"MathJax-Span-11\" class=\"mo\">)<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>-co-critical graphs<\/strong><\/a> (with Zi-Xia Song),\u00a0 submitted, \u00a0<span class=\"arxivid\"><a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2311.04800\">arXiv:2311.04800<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Doctoral Students: Martin Rolek: graduated in April 2017 within 5 years, Assistant Professor (tenure-track), Kennesaw State University Dissertation:\u00a0 Coloring Graphs with Forbidden Minors Publication 1:\u00a0Coloring graphs with forbidden minors (with Zi-Xia Song), J. Combinatorial Theory, Ser. B 127 (2017) 14-31. Publication 2: Double-critical graph conjecture for claw-free graphs (with Zi-Xia Song), Discrete Mathematics 340 (2017) &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/math\/zxsong\/students\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Students<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-29","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/math\/zxsong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/29","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/math\/zxsong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/math\/zxsong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/math\/zxsong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/math\/zxsong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29"}],"version-history":[{"count":73,"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/math\/zxsong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/29\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":748,"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/math\/zxsong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/29\/revisions\/748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/math\/zxsong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}