Rate My Professor Graham Farr

Graham Farr is a Professor in the Faculty of Information Technology at Monash University, serving as Co-convenor of the Discrete Mathematics Research Group and Leader of the Computer History Tours of Melbourne. He earned a Doctor of Philosophy in Mathematics from the University of Oxford in 1986 and a Bachelor of Science with Honours in Pure Mathematics from Monash University in 1982. Farr has held key leadership roles within the Faculty, including Head of the Caulfield School of Information Technology from 2005 to 2008, Director of Higher Degrees by Research at the Clayton School of Information Technology from 2010 to 2012, and Head of the Clayton School of Information Technology from 2012 to 2015. He is currently in the Department of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence and has served as Chief Examiner and Lecturer for FIT2014 Theory of Computation.

Farr's research focuses on discrete mathematics, encompassing algorithms and computational complexity, graph theory, combinatorics, graph algorithms, matroid theory, Tutte polynomials, cryptography, and information theory. His publications include chapters such as "Dominic Welsh: His Work and Influence" (2025), "Graph Polynomials: Some Questions on the Edge" (2025), and "The History of Tutte-Whitney Polynomials" (2022), as well as articles like "Thrackles, Superthrackles and the Hanani-Tutte Theorem" (2024) in the Journal of Graph Algorithms and Applications and "Anytime Approximate Formal Feature Attribution" (2024) at the International Conference on Theory and Applications of Satisfiability Testing. He has supervised multiple PhD students, several of whom received awards including the Mollie Holman Doctoral Medal. Farr's service includes Director of the Faculty Academic Committee (2011-2012), member of the FIT ERA Strategy Group, and involvement with the Council for Computing: the Australasian Theory Symposium. His honors comprise the Vice-Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Postgraduate Supervision (2011), Special Commendation in the Vice-Chancellor's Teaching Awards (2000), and Dean’s Award for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in the Education Category (2022, shared with R. Robinson).