About Me
I am a PhD student under the supervision of Felix Joos in Heidelberg, hoping to defend at the end of 2026. I'm interested in extremal and probabilistic combinatorics, especially random graphs and processes, as well as their application to combinatorial problems such as embedding, colouring, and decompositions. Before coming to Heidelberg, I obtained my undergraduate and Masters degrees at the University of Cambridge.
Papers
Here is a list of my publications and preprints to date.
- Fractional clique decompositions in random hypergraphs (with F. Joos), submitted
- Graph factors and powers of Hamilton cycles in the budget-constrained random graph process (with A. Espuny Díaz, F. Garbe, and T. Naia), to appear in RS&A
- Conflict-free Hypergraph Matchings and Coverings (with F. Joos and D. Mubayi), Combinatorics, Probability and Computing 35 (2026), no. 2, 230-254.
Teaching
I have taught the following courses in Heidelberg.
| Winter 2026/27 | Parameterised complexity seminar |
| Summer 2026 | Plenarübung zur Einführung in die theoretische Informatik |
| Winter 2025/26 | Entropy in combinatorics seminar |
| Summer 2025 | Foundations of cryptography seminar |
| Summer 2025 | Discrete structures 2 exercise class |
| Summer 2024 | Discrete structures 2 exercise class |
I have also been responsible for organising the research seminar since it began in April 2024. If you’d be interested in giving a talk, please get in touch!
Talks
I have given the following talks.
| July 2026 | British Combinatorial Conference (contributed talk) |
| January 2026 | Rényi Institute Drafting Workshop |
| November 2025 | Kolkom (contributed talk) |
| August 2025 | EUROComb (contributed talk) |
| August 2025 | Random Structures and Algorithms (contributed talk) |
| July 2025 | Passau Discrete Mathematics Seminar |
| February 2025 | Darmstadt Combinatorics Seminar |
| November 2024 | Karlsruhe Discrete Mathematics seminar |
| October 2024 | Kolkom (contributed talk) |
| July 2024 | British Combinatorial Conference (contributed talk) |
Contact
Please email smith at informatik.uni-heidelberg.de.