---
title: "Ryan Hayward"
type: "entity"
entity_kind: "person"
status: "hub"
canonical_name: "Ryan Hayward"
aliases: []
first_seen: "2026-08-21T00:00:00.000Z"
writer_model: "claude-sonnet-5"
connects_to: ["Hex (game)","John Nash","University of Alberta","Philip Henderson","computer Hex solvers"]
seek_code_commit: "17d9798"
---


Computing scientist at the University of Alberta and one of the leading
academic researchers on the game of Hex, having built a standing Hex
research group there and co-authored the field's standard survey, "Hex and
Combinatorics" (2006). In this vault he matters twice over: he supervised
[[entity-philip-henderson|Philip Henderson]]'s 2010 PhD dissertation on Hex
— the Tier 2 scholarly secondary this vault uses to corroborate
[[entity-john-nash|Nash]]'s own account of his Hex proof — and he
personally interviewed Nash by telephone in December 1999, together with
Jack van Rijswijck, making him one of the few people to have questioned
Nash directly about his Hex reasoning. That interview is cited in
Henderson's bibliography but has not itself been located or read by this
vault.

## References
- [[claim-nash-1952-rand-report-confirms-hex-proof-non-constructive]] · [[claim-hex-winner-determination-is-pspace-complete]]
- Capture: 10-inbox/raw/2026-08-21-verify-nashs-hex-strategy-stealing-proof-non-constructive.md

## Updates
- 2026-08-22: Hayward's own research-group page and CMPUT 396 course notes — his own venues, not just work he supervised — independently restate the Piet Hein/Nash Hex priority and place the 1948 Princeton reintroduction of Hex within a circle including Gale, Milnor, and Enderton. ([[claim-nash-1952-princeton-circle-includes-gale-milnor-enderton]])