Rate My Professor Michael Wheeler

Michael Wheeler is an Associate Professor in Combinatorics in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Melbourne, Faculty of Science. He completed his PhD in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Melbourne in 2010, with a thesis entitled Free fermions in classical and quantum integrable models. For this work, he was awarded the Chancellor's Prize for Excellence in a PhD Thesis in 2012. Wheeler's research lies at the intersection of mathematical physics, statistical mechanics, and combinatorics. His primary interests include algebraic combinatorics, exactly solvable lattice models, integrable probability, stochastic processes, and symmetric function theory. He is an active member of research groups in discrete mathematics, stochastic processes, and mathematical physics within the School of Mathematics and Statistics.

Throughout his career, Wheeler has progressed from postdoctoral positions, including an ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) Fellowship, to Lecturer and Senior Lecturer, with promotion to Senior Lecturer noted in 2018. He currently holds an ARC Future Fellowship (FT200100981). Wheeler has received prestigious recognition for his contributions, including the Rodney Baxter Prize for Mathematical Physics in 2026. His work has garnered over 1,400 citations on Google Scholar. Key publications include Matrix product formula for Macdonald polynomials (Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical, 2015, with L. Cantini and J. de Gier), A Summation Formula for Macdonald Polynomials (Communications in Mathematical Physics, 2016, with J. de Gier), Symmetric functions from the six-vertex model in half-space (2024, with A. Garbali, J. de Gier, and W. Mead), Deformed Polynuclear Growth in (1+1) Dimensions (International Mathematics Research Notices, 2023), and Colored fermionic vertex models and symmetric functions. Wheeler supervises PhD students, such as Weiying Guo, and contributes to the academic community through grants and collaborations in integrable systems and related fields.