Postdoctoral Fellow

Christine E. Heitsch Dept. of Chemistry Honorary Fellow, Mathematics Department Faculty Supervisor: Rob Corn Email: heitsch@math.wisc.edu 213-1734

My research interests are most succinctly summarized as combinatorics on words, an area at the intersection of mathematics and computer science with increasingly important biological applications. Many interesting questions abstractly concern strings over finite alphabets; I am most intrigued by theoretical problems with underlying practical connections. For my dissertation research, I analyzed the computational difficulties inherent in algorithms for a special case of generalized pattern matching. My current work centers on a problem in bioinformatics, and the possibility of using combinatorial techniques and coding theory to solve the inverse RNA secondary structure question.

CV

CV (.pdf format, Download Reader)

Publications

Heitsch CE, Condon AE, and Hoos HH. From RNA Secondary Structure to Coding Theory: A Combinatorial Approach. Proceedings of the Eight International Meeting on DNA Based Computers, Springer-Verlag, DNA 2002: 215-228 2002.

Heitsch CE. Intractability of the Reductive Decision Procedure for Unavoidability Testing, a Special Case of Generalized Pattern Matching. Submitted to Journal of Algorithms.

Heitsch CE. Insufficiency of Four Known Necessary Conditions on String Unavoidability. Submitted to Journal of Algorithms.

Heitsch CE. Some Theoretical Insights into RNA Secondary Structure Suggested by a Combinatorial Model for the Design Problem. Submitted to the European Conference on Computational Biology (ECCB'03).

Heitsch CE. Combinatorial Insights Into RNA Secondary Structure. Submitted to the Foundations of Computer Science Conference (FOCS 2003).

Heitsch CE. Exact Distribution of Deletion Sizes for Unavoidable Strings. Submitted to Fundamenta Informaticae (Special Issue - Computing Patterns in Strings).

Heitsch CE. An Application of Combinatorics on Words to RNA Secondary Structure Design, Abstract: Semigroups, Automata, and Formal Languages. Special Session, American Mathematical Society and Unione Matematica Italiana First Joint International Meeting, Pisa, Italy, June 13, 2002.

Heitsch CE, Condon AE, and Hoos HH. Towards the Design of RNA Molecules. Abstract: Mathematics and Molecular Biology VII: Modeling Across the Scales - Atoms to Organisms, Santa Fe, NM, 2002.

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