Newcastle University

Roles and Responsibilities

• Member of School Research Committee


• Member of the EPSRC Peer Review College

Research Interests

• Geometrical, Combinatorial and Computational Group Theory


• Decision problems


• Links Between Group Theory and Formal Language Theory


• Theory of Automatic Groups and Group Combings


• Language Theoretical Complexity of the Word Problem


• Theoretical and Practical Development of Algorithms in Group Theory

• Ciobanu L, Holt DF, Rees S. Rapid decay is preserved by graph products. Journal of Topology and Analysis 2013. In Press.
• Rees S, Holt DF. Shortlex automaticity and geodesic regularity in Artin groups. Groups Complexity Cryptology 2013. In Press.
• Holt DF, Rees S. Artin groups of large type are shortlex automatic with regular geodesics. Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society 2012, 104(3), 486-512.
• Holt DF, Rees S. Generalising some results about right-angled Artin groups to graph products of groups. Journal of Algebra 2012, 371(1), 94-104.
• Holt D, Rees S, Roever C. Groups with context-free conjugacy problems. International Journal of Algebra and Computation 2011, 21(1-2), 193-216.
• Batty M, Casaccino A, Duncan AJ, Rees S, Severini S. An application of the Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm to formal languages and the word problem in groups. In: Theory of Quantum Computation, Communication, and Cryptography: Third Workshop (TQC). 2008, Tokyo, Japan: Springer.
• Holt DF, Rees SE, Shapiro M. Groups that do and do not have growing context-sensitive wordproblem. International Journal of Algebra and Computation 2008, 18(7), 1179-1191.
• Hermiller S, Holt D, Rees SE. Groups whose geodesics are locally testable. International Journal of Algebra and Computation 2008, 18(5), 911-923.
• Rees S. The automata that define representations of monomial algebras. Algebras and Representation Theory 2008, 11(3), 207-214.
• Gilman RH, Hermiller S, Holt DF, Rees S. A characterisation of virtually free groups. Archiv der Mathematik 2007, 89(4), 289-295.
• Hermiller S, Holt DF, Rees S. Star-free geodesic languages for groups. International Journal of Algebra and Computation 2007, 17(2), 329-345.
• Payne O, Rees S. Computing subgroup presentations, using the coherence arguments of McCammond and Wise. Journal of Algebra 2006, 300(1), 109-133.
• Holt DF, Rees SE, Röver CE, Thomas RM. Groups with context-free co-word problem. Journal of the London Mathematical Society 2005, 71(3), 643-657.
• Batty M, Braunstein SL, Duncan AJ, Rees SE. Quantum Algorithms in Group Theory. Contemporary Mathematics 2004, 349, 1-62.
• Batty M, Braunstein SL, Duncan AJ, Rees S. Quantum algorithms in group theory. In: Computational and Experimental Group Theory. 2004, Baltimore, Maryland, USA: American Mathematical Society.
• Batty M, Braunstein SL, Duncan A, Rees S. Quantum algorithms in group theory. In: Interactions between Logic, Group Theory and Computer Science. 2003, Maryland, USA: American Mathematical Society.
• Rees SE, Holt D. Regularity of Quasigeodesics in a hyperbolic group. International Journal of Algebra and Computation 2003, 13(5), 585-596.
• Rees SE. How hard is the word problem. In: European Women in Mathematics. 2002, Varna, Bulgaria.
• Holt DF, Rees S. Solving the word problem in real time. Journal of the London Mathematical Society 2001, 63(3), 623-639.
• Rees S, Soicher LH. An Algorithmic Approach to Fundamental Groups and Covers of Combinatorial Cell Complexes. Journal of Symbolic Computation 2000, 29(1), 59-77.
• Rees S. A language theoretic analysis of combings. Contemporary Mathematics 1999, 250, 117-136.
• Gilman RH, Holt DF, Rees S. Combing nilpotent and polycyclic groups. International Journal of Algebra and Computation 1999, 9(2), 135-155.
• Holt DF, Rees S. Computing with Abelian sections of finitely presented groups. Journal of Algebra 1999, 214(2), 714-728.
• Holt DF, Rees S. Computing with abelian sections of finitely presentedgroups. Journal of Algebra 1999, 214(2), 714-728.
• Havas G, Holt DF, Kenne PE, Rees S. Some challenging group presentations. Journal of the Australian Mathematics Society 1999, 67(2), 206-213.
• Havas G, Holt DF, Kenne PE, Rees S. Some challenging group presentations. Journal of the Australian Mathematical Society 1999, 67(2), 206-213.
• Havas G, Holt DF, Kenne PE, Rees S. Some challenging group presentations. Journal of the Australian Mathematical Society Series A - Pure Mathematics and Statistics 1999, 67, 206-213.