Faculty of Science Award for Research Excellence
The Faculty of Science Award for Research Excellence seeks to celebrate academic staff who are making outstanding contributions to the advancement of knowledge and mentorship of emerging researchers.
Dr. Karen Meagher is a Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Regina. After completing her Ph.D. at the University of Ottawa, she joined the UofR Mathematics and Statistics department in 2007 where she has since served as the departmental graduate student coordinator, acting Associate Dean in the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, and co-chair of the national NSERC Mathematics and Statistics Evaluation Group.
Dr. Meagher’s research program lies in the fields of algebraic graph theory and combinatorics where she has had extensive publications regarding topics like covering arrays, derangement graphs, intersecting families of perfect-matchings, and zero forcing. Her most recent research interest revolves around the seminal Erdös-Ko-Rado Theorem which bounds the size of a maximal intersecting family of sets. Her work has to the authorship of a mathematical textbook, Erdős-Ko-Rado theorems: algebraic approaches, which was published in Cambridge Studies in Advanced Mathematics in 2016. This textbook received glowing reviews in the American Mathematical Society’s Math Reviews due to its superb ability to navigate deft and complex topics in an accessible manner for all researchers. In addition, she has supervised an impressive 18 student researchers during her appointment in the department, and she has been a committee member on over 17 thesis committees as both an internal and external examiner world wide.
One of the hallmarks Dr. Meagher’s research program is her devotion to inclusivity in STEM. As a member of the University of Regina Women in Science and Engineering (URWISE) group, she is a local and national leader in making mathematics more inclusive through her commitment to EDI training and education, serving the Canadian Mathematical Society as the Chair of the Women in Mathematics Committee, and fostering collaborative and innovative approaches to research such as in the “Connecting Women in Math across Canada” workshop.
The Department of Mathematics and Statistics is very proud of your accomplishments, Dr. Meagher, and congratulations again on this well-deserved award!