Dr. Ján Mináč is Mathematics Professor and Western Fellow, also cross-appointed in the Computer Science Department at Western University. 

Mináč, an award-winning scholar and teacher, is a globally renowned expert of Galois theory, which has applications in mathematics, physics and chemistry, among others. He was initially inspired to study the theory as a young boy in the former Czechoslovakia, when he read the biography of Évariste Galois, a French mathematician and political activist. Galois theory remained top of mind for Mináč while he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mathematics from Comenius University in Czechoslovakia. It then became the focus of Mináč’s doctoral research when he emigrated to Canada to attend Queen’s University to study with well-known Canadian mathematician Paulo Ribenboim. There, Mináč made an unexpected and important discovery about the connection between families of quadratic forms and certain Galois groups, which are sets of symmetries. In this way, he discovered new vocabulary and a novel way of studying both quadratic forms and Galois groups. Mináč continued his groundbreaking work at Berkeley, where, with Michel Spira, he extended his previous work in a unique way. Their work was later published in influential mathematical journals, including the Annals of Mathematics. 

In 1989, Mináč joined the department of mathematics at Western, where he made further important contributions, including studying how certain mathematical tools called Massey products, influence the structure of absolute Galois groups. A two-time recipient of Western’s Distinguished Research Professorships, Mináč’s contributions have resulted in more than 115 publications in esteemed academic journals. His outstanding contributions in mathematical research have been recognized with Jeffery-Williams Prize, the highest research honour awarded annually by the Canadian Mathematical Society.