An equitable tree-$k$-coloring of a graph is a vertex coloring using $k$ distinct colors such that every color class (i.e, the set of vertices in a common color) induces a forest and the sizes of any two color classes differ by at most one. The minimum integer $k$ such that a graph $G$ is equitably tree-$k$-colorable is the equitable vertex arboricity of $G$, denoted by $va_{eq}(G)$. A graph that is equitably tree-$k$-colorable may admits no equitable tree-$k'$-coloring for some $k'>k$. For example, the complete bipartite graph $K_{9,9}$ has an equitable tree-$2$-coloring but is not equitably tree-3-colorable. In view of this a new chromatic parameter so-called the equitable vertex arborable threshold is introduced. Precisely, it is the minimum integer $k$ such that $G$ has an equitable tree-$k'$-coloring for any integer $k'\geq k$, and is denoted by $va_{eq}^*(G)$. The concepts of the equitable vertex arboricity and the equitable vertex arborable threshold were introduced by J.-L. Wu, X. Zhang and H. Li in 2013. In 2016, X. Zhang also introduced the list analogue of the equitable tree-$k$-coloring. There are many interesting conjectures on the equitable (list) tree-colorings, one of which, for example, conjectures that every graph with maximum degree at most $\Delta$ is equitably tree-$k$-colorable for any integer $k\geq (\Delta+1)/2$, i.e, $va_{eq}^*(G)\leq \lceil(\Delta+1)/2\rceil$. In this talk, I review the recent progresses on the studies of the equitable tree-colorings from theoretical results to practical algorithms, and also share some interesting problems for further research.

Xin Zhang. He began the research career in the 2010s at Shandong University, working in Graph Theory. His early research focused on the cycles-packing problems of graphs and now his main research interests focus on graph coloring problems. Since 2012, in which year he got the PH.D. degree, he is working for School of Mathematics and Statistics of Xidian University as a researcher. He is also a member of the board of directors of Special Interest Group in Graph Theory & Combinatorics from the Operations Research Society of China, and a commissary of CSIAM Activity Group on Graph Theory and Combinatorics with Applications. Until now, he has published over 60 peer-reviewed papers on graph coloring and graph packing. His recent research is mainly supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Natural Science Basic Research Plan in Shaanxi Province of China.