Andrew Wood

Andrew Wood

I am a DPhil student in Mathematics at the University of Oxford, supervised by Martin Bridson and Panos Papasoglu. My research interests include geometric group theory, the conjugacy problem, and conjugacy length functions.

I previously completed a Master’s degree in Mathematics, where my research focused on topological dynamics and closed-relation dynamical systems, including work on shadowing and transitivity. See my Master's thesis.

Alongside theoretical mathematics, I am interested in the emerging area of AI for mathematics, including automated reasoning, theorem proving, and symbolic reasoning systems. I am particularly interested in how computational methods and machine learning can assist mathematical discovery.

I also enjoy building computational tools alongside theoretical work and plan to integrate formalisation (Lean), computational experimentation, and mathematical research throughout my career.

Publications and preprints

Edge Inversions in (Pk)-closed Groups — preprint
with Kirwin Hampshire and Florian Lehner

Transitivity in CR-Dynamical Systems — preprint
with Sina Greenwood

Shadowing in CR-Dynamical Systems — preprint

Talks

Relative Stackings
Whitehead Journal Club
University of Oxford — November 2025
Based on Section 5 of the Wiegold paper by Chen and Lodha

How to Chase Your Shadow: Topological Dynamics
Mathematics Club Seminar
University of Auckland — August 2025
Slides

Profinite Rigidity
Geometric Group Theory Course Talk
University of Auckland — October 2024
Slides

Orbit Structure in CR-Dynamical Systems
38th Summer Conference on Topology
University of Coimbra, Portugal — July 2024
Slides

Orbit Structure in CR-Dynamical Systems
Maths Student Research Conference
University of Auckland — June 2024
Only non-PhD student speaker; competition prize winner
Slides

Shadowing in CR-Dynamical Systems
16th Devonport Topology Festival
University of Auckland — February 2024
Slides

Conferences and Workshops

Groups and Geometry in South England (GGSE)
University of Warwick — March 2026
Workshop website

Groups and Geometry in South England (GGSE)
University of Bristol — February 2026
Workshop website

New Zealand Mathematics Research Institute (NZMRI)
Napier — January 2026
Conference website

Groups and Geometry in South England (GGSE)
University College London — October 2025
Workshop website

Joint Meeting of the NZMS, AustMS and AMS
University of Auckland — December 2024
Conference website

New Zealand Mathematical Society Colloquium
Victoria University of Wellington — December 2023
Conference website

Teaching

Teaching Assistant
B1.2 Set Theory
Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford — 2026–Present

Teaching Assistant
Analysis I & II
Queen’s College, University of Oxford — 2025–Present

Mathematics Tutor
Mathematics Assistance Room
University of Auckland — 2024

Private Mathematics Tutor
Graph Theory (MATHS715) and Group Theory (MATHS720)
University of Auckland — 2024

Mathematics Grader
Algebraic Structures (MATHS320)
University of Auckland — 2023

Mathematics Tutor
Mathematics A (MATH102), Mathematics B (MATH103), and Discrete Mathematics (MATH120)
College House, University of Canterbury — 2021–2022

Academic Service

Part C Presentation Feedback
Attended and provided feedback on a Part C (MMath) mathematics presentation prior to submission.
University of Oxford — 2026

Doctoral Thesis Proofreading
Provided detailed proofreading and feedback on a doctoral dissertation in mathematics prior to submission.
University of Auckland — 2024

Lecture Notes

Lecture notes I created from graduate courses taken during my undergraduate and graduate studies. These notes were prepared for personal study and may contain errors or omissions.

Geometric Group Theory — a graduate course at the University of Auckland.

Lie Groups and Lie Algebras — a graduate course at the University of Auckland.

Group Theory — a graduate course at the University of Auckland.

Measure Theory — a graduate course at the University of Auckland.

Graph Theory and Combinatorics — a graduate course at the University of Auckland.

Graph Theory — a graduate course at the University of Canterbury.

Topology — a graduate course at the University of Canterbury.

Reports

The Reconstruction Conjecture — report written for a graduate graph theory course at the University of Canterbury.

Exploratory Mathematics

Exploratory mathematical notes and computational experiments.

The Set-Self-Tietze Property — preprint exploring a set-valued analogue of the self-Tietze property.

Closures and complements on a set — notes written during my undergraduate studies exploring Kuratowski's closure–complement problem.

The (a, b) Shadow Functions — exploratory notes written at age 18 motivated by the Collatz conjecture.
See the accompanying code.

Industry Experience

Intern Coder and Auditor
Triple Ledger Limited – 2018–2025

Intern Programmer
Techemy (Digital Asset Exchange) – 2020–2022

These roles involved software development and distributed systems, complementing my interest in computational approaches to mathematics and AI-assisted reasoning.

Links

Oxford webpage
Google Scholar
ORCID
arXiv
GitHub
MathsStackExchange