He read chemistry at Trinity College, Cambridge. It was a recreational problem on the dissection of a square into unequal squares which sparked his interest in mathematics. World War II interrupted his studies, but gave him the opportunity to make a significant contribution to the defense of Britain with a key discovery in cryptographic analysis. After the war, he returned to Cambridge, completing his Ph.D. thesis in 1948. He was elected to a Fellowship at Trinity, which he held briefly before moving to Canada and taking up a teaching position at the University of Toronto. He joined the University of Waterloo in 1962.
The pioneering work of Professor Tutte has had a profound effect on the development of graph theory. His first paper, written jointly with R. L. Brooks, C. A. B. Smith, and A. H. Stone, was published in 1940 while he was still an undergraduate. It made ingenious use of graphs and electrical networks to solve the dissection problem mentioned above. At that time the subject was in its infancy. Now, largely through his work and the influence of his work, it has grown into a substantial discipline, with many beautiful theorems, challenging problems, and wide-ranging applications. In recognition of his accomplishments, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1987.
It is perhaps no exaggeration to say that a journal such as this one would not be in existence if it were not for the fundamental contributions of Professor Tutte to graph theory. We are pleased to dedicate this issue to him to mark his 80 th birthday.