Staff profile

Personal webpage
I have been a lecturer in Computer Science at Durham University since January 2006. Prior to this I held posts as a post-doctoral fellow at the School of Computing, Leeds University and at the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. My D.Phil. and undergraduate degree (MMath) were conducted at the Department of Mathematics, Oxford University.

• Discrete mathematics, theoretical computer science and applications in phylogenetics.

• 2015: Erskine Fellowship at University of Canterbury: From January to April 2015 I held an Erskine Fellowship at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. During this time I worked chiefly with Prof. Charles Semple on combinatorial problems in phylogenetics.
• 2010: 'Top cited article' award: I was awarded a “Top Cited Article 2005-2010” award from the journal Discrete Applied Mathematics, awarded by Elsevier in September 2010. Our article "Computing the minimum number of hybridization events for a consistent evolutionary history" is the 3rd most cited article published in the period 2005-2010, from a total of over 1000 (approx 270 per year), having already obtained over 65 citations listed on Google scholar.

Chapter in book

• Bordewich, M., & Kang, R. (2011). Rapid Mixing of Subset Glauber Dynamics on Graphs of Bounded Tree-Width. In L. Aceto, M. Henzinger, & J. Sgall (Eds.), Automata, languages and programming (533-544). Springer Verlag. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-22006-7_45

Conference Paper

• Prew, W., Breckon, T., Bordewich, M., & Beierholm, U. (2022, July). Evaluating Gaussian Grasp Maps for Generative Grasping Models. Presented at Proc. Int. Joint Conf. Neural Networks, Padova, Italy
• Adey, P., Akcay, S., Bordewich, M., & Breckon, T. (2021, July). Autoencoders Without Reconstruction for Textural Anomaly Detection. Presented at 2021 International Joint Conference on Neural Networks (IJCNN), Shenzhen, China
• Prew, W., Breckon, T., Bordewich, M., & Beierholm, U. (2021, January). Improving Robotic Grasping on Monocular Images Via Multi-Task Learning and Positional Loss. Presented at 25th International Conference on Pattern Recognition (ICPR 2020), Milan, Italy
• Bordewich, M. (2010, September). On the approximation complexity hierarchy. Presented at 8th International Workshop on International Workshop on Approximation and Online Algorithms, WAOA 2010, Liverpool
• Bordewich, M., & Mihaescu, R. (2010, September). Accuracy Guarantees for Phylogeny Reconstruction Algorithms Based on Balanced Minimum Evolution. Presented at 10th Workshop on Algorithms in Bioinformatics (WABI 2010), Liverpool
• Bordewich, M., Dyer, M., & Karpinski, M. (2006, July). Stopping times, metrics and approximate counting. Presented at 33rd International Colloquium of Automata, Languages and Programming (ICALP 2006)., Venice, Italy
• Bordewich, M., Dyer, M., & Karpinski, M. (2005, August). Path coupling using stopping times. Presented at 15th International Symposium Fundamentals of Computation Theory : FCT 2005., Lubeck, Germany

Doctoral Thesis

• Bordewich, M. (2003). The Complexity of Counting and Randomised Approximation. (Thesis). Department of Mathematics, New College, Oxford University. https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1642207

Journal Article

• Bordewich, M., & Semple, C. (2024). Quantifying the difference between phylogenetic diversity and diversity indices. Journal of Mathematical Biology, 88(4), Article 40. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00285-024-02059-y
• Bordewich, M., Semple, C., & Wicke, K. (2022). On the Complexity of Optimising Variants of Phylogenetic Diversity on Phylogenetic Networks. Theoretical Computer Science, 917, 66-80. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tcs.2022.03.012
• Bordewich, M., Linz, S., Owen, M., St. John, K., Semple, C., & Wicke, K. (2022). On the Maximum Agreement Subtree Conjecture for Balanced Trees. SIAM Journal on Discrete Mathematics, 36(1), 336-354. https://doi.org/10.1137/20m1379678
• Bordewich, M., & Semple, C. (2018). A universal tree-based network with the minimum number of reticulations. Discrete Applied Mathematics, 250, 357-362. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dam.2018.05.010
• Bordewich, M., Deutschmann, I. M., Fischer, M., Kasbohm, E., Semple, C., & Steel, M. (2018). On the information content of discrete phylogenetic characters. Journal of Mathematical Biology, 77(3), 527-544. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00285-017-1198-2
• Bordewich, M., Huber, K. T., Moulton, V., & Semple, C. (2018). Recovering normal networks from shortest inter-taxa distance information. Journal of Mathematical Biology, 77(3), 571-594. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00285-018-1218-x
• Bordewich, M., Semple, C., & Tokac, N. (2017). Constructing Tree-Child Networks from Distance Matrices. Algorithmica, 80(8), 2240-2259. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00453-017-0320-6
• Bordewich, M., Linz, S., & Semple, C. (2017). Lost in space? Generalising subtree prune and regraft to spaces of phylogenetic networks. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 423, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtbi.2017.03.032
• Bordewich, M., Scornavacca, C., Tokac, N., & Weller, M. (2017). On the Fixed Parameter Tractability of Agreement-based Phylogenetic Distances. Journal of Mathematical Biology, 74(1), 239-257. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00285-016-1023-3
• Bordewich, M., & Tokac, N. (2016). An algorithm for reconstructing ultrametric tree-child networks from inter-taxa distances. Discrete Applied Mathematics, 213, 47-59. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dam.2016.05.011
• Bordewich, M., & Semple, C. (2016). Determining phylogenetic networks from inter-taxa distances. Journal of Mathematical Biology, 73(2), 283-303. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00285-015-0950-8
• Bordewich, M., & Semple, C. (2016). Reticulation-Visible Networks. Advances in Applied Mathematics, 78, 114-141. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aam.2016.04.004
• Bordewich, M., Greenhill, C., & Patel, V. (2016). Mixing of the Glauber Dynamics for the Ferromagnetic Potts Model. Random Structures and Algorithms, 48(1), 21-52. https://doi.org/10.1002/rsa.20569
• Bordewich, M., & Semple, C. (2015). Defining a Phylogenetic Tree with the Minimum Number of r-State Characters. SIAM Journal on Discrete Mathematics, 29(2), 835-853. https://doi.org/10.1137/130924469
• Bordewich, M., & Kang, R. (2014). Subset Glauber Dynamics on Graphs, Hypergraphs and Matroids of Bounded Tree-Width. Electronic Journal of Combinatorics, 21(4), Article 19
• Bordewich, M., & Mihaescu, R. (2013). Accuracy Guarantees for Phylogeny Reconstruction Algorithms Based on Balanced Minimum Evolution. IEEE/ACM Transactions on Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, 10(3), 576-583. https://doi.org/10.1109/tcbb.2013.39
• Bordewich, M., & Semple, C. (2012). Budgeted Nature Reserve Selection with diversity feature loss and arbitrary split systems. Journal of Mathematical Biology, 64(1), 69-85. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00285-011-0405-9
• White, T. A., Bordewich, M., & Searle, J. B. (2010). A Network Approach to Study Karyotypic Evolution: The Chromosomal Races of the Common Shrew (Sorex araneus) and House Mouse (Mus musculus) as Model Systems. Systematic Biology, 59(3), 262-276. https://doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/syq004
• Bordewich, M., Semple, C., & Spillner, A. (2009). Optimizing phylogenetic diversity across two trees. Applied Mathematics Letters, 22(5), 638-641. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aml.2008.05.004
• Bordewich, M., Gascuel, O., Huber, K., & Moulton, V. (2009). Consistency of Topological Moves Based on the Balanced Minimum Evolution Principle of Phylogenetic Inference. IEEE/ACM Transactions on Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, 6(1), 110-117. https://doi.org/10.1109/tcbb.2008.37
• Bordewich, M., Rodrigo, A., & Semple, C. (2008). Selecting Taxa to Save or Sequence: Desirable Criteria and a Greedy Solution. Systematic Biology, 57(6), 825-834. https://doi.org/10.1080/10635150802552831
• Bordewich, M., McCartin, C., & Semple, C. (2008). A 3-approximation algorithm for the subtree distance between phylogenies. Journal of discrete algorithms, 6(3), 458-471. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jda.2007.10.002
• Bordewich, M., Karpinski, M., & Dyer, M. (2008). Path Coupling Using Stopping Times and Counting Independent Sets and Colourings in Hypergraphs. Random Structures and Algorithms, 32(3), 375-399. https://doi.org/10.1002/rsa.20204
• Bordewich, M., & Semple, C. (2008). Nature Reserve Selection Problem: A Tight Approximation Algorithm. IEEE/ACM Transactions on Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, 5(2), 275-280. https://doi.org/10.1109/tcbb.2007.70252
• Bordewich, M., & Semple, C. (2007). Computing the hybridisation number of two phylogenetic trees is fixed parameter tractable. IEEE/ACM Transactions on Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, 4(3), 458-466. https://doi.org/10.1109/tcbb.2007.1019
• Bordewich, M., & Dyer, M. (2007). Path Coupling without contraction. Journal of discrete algorithms, 5(2), 280-292. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jda.2006.04.001
• Bordewich, M., Linz, S., St. John, K., & Semple, C. (2007). A Reduction Algorithm for Computing the Hybridization Number of Two Trees. Evolutionary Bioinformatics, 3, 86-98
• Bordewich, M., & Semple, C. (2007). Computing the minimum number of hybridisation events for a consistent evolutionary history. Discrete Applied Mathematics, 155(8), 914-928. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dam.2006.08.008
• Bordewich, M., Semple, C., & Steel, M. (2006). Identifying X-Trees with Few Characters. Electronic Journal of Combinatorics, 13(1),
• Bordewich, M., Evans, G., & Semple, C. (2006). Extending the limits of supertree methods. Annals of Combinatorics, 10, 31-51
• Bordewich, M., Freedman, M., Lovasz, L., & Welsh, D. (2005). Approximate counting and quantum computation. Combinatorics, Probability and Computing, 14(5-6), 737-754. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0963548305007005
• Bordewich, M., Huber, K., & Semple, C. (2005). Identifying phylogenetic trees. Discrete Mathematics, 300(1-3), 30-43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.disc.2005.06.015
• Bordewich, M., & Semple, C. (2005). On the computational complexity of the rooted subtree prune and regraft distance. Annals of Combinatorics, 8(4), 409-423. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00026-004-0229-z
• Bordewich, M., Semple, C., & Talbot, J. (2004). Counting Consistent Phylogenetic Trees is #P-complete. Advances in Mathematics, 33(2), 416-430. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aam.2003.08.006
• Bordewich, M. (2004). Approximating the number of acyclic orientations for a class of sparse graphs. Combinatorics, Probability and Computing, 13(1), 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0963548303005844