Title: Packing and covering odd cycles in planar graphs

Packing and covering problems lie at the heart of combinatorial optimization. In this talk, I will consider the case of odd cycles in planar graphs. For the odd cycle vertex covering problem, Goemans and Williamson (1998) obtained a 9/4-approximation algorithm. I will present the first approximation algorithm for the corresponding packing problem with a constant approximation guarantee.
This is joint work with Nadia Hardy, Bruce Reed and Adrian Vetta (McGill).