Dr James Tuite

I studied my BSc and MSc in mathematics with the Open University, then pursued a PhD in graph theory under the supervision of Prof. Jozef Širáň. Later I held an LMS Early Career Fellowship and an EPSRC funded postdoc with the OU. I am currently an Associate Lecturer and Visiting Fellow at the OU.

Research interests

I work in graph theory, the mathematical theory of networks. My particular areas of interest are the degree/diameter and degree/girth problems, which are concerned with efficient interconnection networks, Turán problems (how many edges can a graph have if a particular substructure is forbidden?) and special vertex subsets, especially general position sets and their relatives (these subsets have a no-three-in-line property and have applications in robotic navigation and communication).

Teaching interests

I have been an AL for four years. I currently teach M823 Analytic Number Theory and M840 Algebraic Graph Theory, and in the past taught M820 Calculus of Variations. I also do some teaching at Buckingham University.

Impact and engagement

I currently have 21 published papers. I recommend the following two papers as an approachable introduction to my work. 

J. Tuite & G. Erskine, On networks with order close to the Moore bound. Graphs and Combinatorics 38 (143) (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00373-022-02535-6 

U. Chandran S.V., S. Klavžar, J. Tuite, The general position problem: a survey.
arXiv:2501.19385

I especially enjoy supervising internship and bursary research projects, as well as research placements for college students with the Nuffield Foundation placement scheme. We are currently organising a pilot mathematics research project for SISE students. For the last two years I also conducted EDI reviews of new OU modules. I have performed peer review for 22 different journals.