Mike Grannell


General

Mike GrannellI am an Emeritus Professor in the School of Mathematics and Statistics within the Faculty of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics at the Open University.

The postal address is: School of Mathematics and Statistics, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, U.K.

You can email me at: mike.grannell@open.ac.uk

My research area is combinatorics, in particular block designs and Steiner systems.



Career summary

I graduated in 1967 from Imperial College with a B.Sc. (Hons class I) in Mathematics, and subsequently obtained my Ph.D., also from Imperial College, in 1970. For two years I worked as an investment analyst and for a further two years as a school teacher before moving in 1974 to Preston Polytechnic (now the University of Central Lancashire) as a lecturer in Mathematics. While at Preston I worked in a variety of roles, in particular as Programme Coordinator and as Examinations Officer for Combined Studies, as a designer of the credit accumulation scheme, and as acting Head of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics. I was awarded a University Professorship in 1993. During my time at Preston, I undertook research work in combinatorics in partnership with my colleague Terry Griggs, as well as educational projects both in Combined Studies and within Mathematics. I also undertook consultancy work for a local engineering company. My main teaching activities were in mathematical methods, analysis and combinatorics.

Terry Griggs and I took early retirement from Central Lancashire in 1997 and subsequently joined the Open University in 1999 as Research Fellows. Here we joined the active Combinatorics Research Group. I have published over 100 papers in refereed journals since 1999, many being joint with Terry and several being joint with other OU colleagues. In addition, Terry and I produced the 30-point M.Sc. module M836 (Coding Theory) which has run very successfully since 2002.

In March 2008 I retired from my full-time post and I am now an Emeritus Professor of the University.
Contact: Mike Grannell mike.grannell@open.ac.uk