Invited Speaker
Clement W. H. Lam
Professor
Concordia University
Montréal Québec

Email:
lam@vax2.concordia.ca
Homepage:
N/A
Paper:
The Search for a Finite Projective Plane of Order 10
Talk:
The Search for a Finite Projective Plane of Order 10
(QuickTime movie - 1.5M)
Abstract:
When I was a graduate student looking for a thesis topic, Herbert Ryser advised me not to work on the projective plane of order 10. Even though he was extremely interested in this subject, he believed that it was too difficult and that I might get nowhere with it. I took his advice and chose another problem. Somehow, this problem has a beauty that fascinates me as well as many other mathematicians. Finally in 1980, I succumbed to the temptation and started working on it with some of my colleagues. We eventually managed to get somewhere, but unfortunately, Dr. Ryser is no longer with us to hear of the final result. This is an expository article describing the evolution of the problem and how computers were used to solve it.


About Myself

Education:
Clement Lam received a Ph.D. in mathematics at Caltech under Herbert Ryser in 1974
Interests: His research interest is in combinatorics, especially in the application of computers to solve mathematical problems.