Rate My Professor Mike Atkinson

Emeritus Professor Mike Atkinson holds the position of Emeritus Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Otago's School of Computing within the Sciences Division. He obtained his Bachelor's degree in 1967 and Doctorate in 1970 from Oxford University. His extensive career includes positions at several leading institutions. From 1970 to 1982, he worked in the Department of Computing Mathematics at the University of Cardiff. In 1982, he joined the School of Computer Science at Carleton University in Canada, serving there until 1992 and continuing as Adjunct Research Professor until 1999. From 1992 to 2000, he was Professor of Algorithms in the Schools of Computer Science and Mathematics and Statistics at the University of St Andrews, where he also headed the combined School of Mathematical and Computational Sciences from 1994 to 1997. Prior to his appointment at Otago in 2000 as Professor of Computer Science, he held a professorship for one semester in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Auckland.

Professor Atkinson's research focuses on the design and analysis of algorithms, algebra, combinatorics, and the interconnections among algorithms, algebra, and combinatorics, as well as between sorting machines and permutation patterns. He contributes to the team responsible for overseeing the development of the GAP system, a software package for computational algebra and discrete mathematics. Notable publications include 'Permutations Generated by Stacks and Deques' in Annals of Combinatorics (2010, with Michael Albert and Steve Linton), 'The p-modular descent algebras' in Algebras and Representation Theory (2002, with S. van Willigenburg and G. Pfeiffer), 'Partially well-ordered closed sets of permutations' in Journal of Order (2002, with N. Ruskuc and M. Murphy), and 'Restricted permutations and the wreath product' in Discrete Mathematics (2002, with T. Stitt). His contributions have advanced understanding in permutation patterns and related combinatorial structures.