Benjamin Burton
Mathematician and Software Developer

I am a half-mathematician, half-computer scientist based in Brisbane, Australia. I have worked in computational geometry, information security, financial mathematics, and gifted-and-talented education.

I do software development and research consulting as a sole trader (ABN: 52987060341). For further details, you can contact me at bab@benburton.org.

Some of the projects I am currently involved in:

• International Olympiad in Informatics

  I currently serve on the International Committee for the The International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI), the premier competition for programing and algorithm design for secondary school students. I spent 10 years as a delegation leader and coach of the Australian team, and since 2008 I have been working behind the scenes with the different committees that oversee the IOI. I served as President of IOI from 2021–2024.

  IOI 2025 will be in Bolivia next year, and in 2013 we hosted IOI 2013 in Brisbane, Australia!

• National Mathematics Summer School

  The National Mathematics Summer School (NMSS) gives talented and enthusiastic secondary students a taste of research, and a feel for what doing mathematics is really like. I was involved as a tutor and lecturer for ~25 years, and served as Director of NMSS between 2018–2020.

• Software Development

  My largest and oldest software project is Regina, an open-source software package for low-dimensional topologists. You can find Regina at regina-normal.github.io.

  I have a number of iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch apps, including:

  • References, to browse through your BibTeX databases;
  • Modular Arithmetic, to do arithmetic modulo N;
  • PDF Projector, to project your PDF slideshows onto an external screen;
  • Inkpad Libre, which is the open-source continuation of Steve Sprang’s excellent vector graphics app for the iPad.

• Research Consulting

  I help various organisations with scientific research consulting. If you are interested in talking further about this, please contact me at bab@benburton.org.

I also work as a mathematician at The University of Queensland. For more on my academic work, see my main university website at UQ.