Bob Howlett

Robert Brian Howlett, known as Bob Howlett, is an Honorary Associate Professor in the School of Mathematics and Statistics within the Faculty of Science at the University of Sydney. He obtained his BA (Honours) in 1970 and PhD in 1976 from the University of Adelaide, supervised by R. J. Clarke, with his thesis titled 'Some irreducible characters of groups with BN pairs'. His academic career began with tutoring roles at the South Australian Institute of Technology in 1971 and the University of Adelaide from 1975 to 1976. He held a Queen Elizabeth II Fellowship at the University of Sydney in 1977-1978, a senior tutorship at the University of Western Australia in 1979, and a research fellowship at the Australian National University in 1980. In 1982, he received a Nuffield Foundation Travelling Fellowship at the University of Warwick, followed by a temporary lectureship at Sydney and a permanent position there, where he has been based since. Sabbaticals included time at Warwick in 1991 and at the Universities of Wisconsin-Madison and Manchester Institute of Science and Technology in 1995.

Howlett's research focuses on representation theory of finite groups of Lie type, finite and infinite Coxeter groups, Iwahori-Hecke algebras, and representation theory of finite solvable groups. Key publications include 'Induced cuspidal representations and generalised Hecke rings' (1980, with G. I. Lehrer, Inventiones Mathematicae), which advanced the proof of Springer's conjecture; 'Normalizers of parabolic subgroups in Coxeter groups' (1999, with B. Brink, Inventiones Mathematicae); 'On regularity of finite reflection groups' (2000, with J.-Y. Shi, Manuscripta Mathematica); and 'Intrinsic reflections and strongly rigid Coxeter groups' (2018, Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society). He has supervised PhD students including Brigitte Brink, Yunchuan Yin, and Shona Huimin Yu, received Australian Research Council funding for a project on reflection groups, and served on the editorial team of the Bulletin of the Australian Mathematical Society.

Professional Email: robert.howlett@sydney.edu.au