William M. Kantor (born September 19, 1944) is an American mathematician who works in finite group theory and finite geometries, particularly in computational aspects of these subjects.

William Kantor
William Kantor in Oberwolfach 2011
Born
William M. Kantor

(1944-09-19) September 19, 1944 (age 80)
Other namesBill Kantor
Scientific career
FieldsMathematics
InstitutionsUniversity of Oregon, University of Illinois at Chicago
Thesis 2-transitive symmetric designs  (1968)
Doctoral advisorsPeter Dembowski, Richard Hubert Bruck
Notable studentsMark Ronan
Websitehttps://pages.uoregon.edu/kantor/

Education and career

edit

Kantor graduated with a bachelor's degree from Brooklyn College in 1964.[1] He went on to graduate studies at the University of Wisconsin, receiving his PhD in 1968 under the supervision of Peter Dembowski and R. H. Bruck.[2] He then worked at the University of Illinois at Chicago from 1968 to 1971 before moving in 1971 to the University of Oregon, where he remained for the rest of his career.

Kantor's research mostly involves finite groups, often in relation to finite geometries and computation. Algorithms developed by him have found use, for example, in the GAP computer algebra system.[3]

Kantor has written over 170 papers,[4] and has advised 7 PhD students.[2]

Significant publications

edit

Books and monographs

edit
  • Kantor, W. M. (1979). Classical groups from a nonclassical viewpoint. Oxford University, Mathematical Institute, Oxford. MR 0578539.
  • Kantor, William M.; Seress, Ákos (2001). "Black box classical groups". Memoirs of the American Mathematical Society. 149 (708): 0. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.294.1011. doi:10.1090/memo/0708. ISSN 0065-9266. MR 1804385.

Journal articles

edit

Awards and honors

edit

References

edit
  1. ^ William Kantor on LinkedIn
  2. ^ a b William M. Kantor at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  3. ^ "GAP source code". Official GAP system website. Retrieved September 27, 2019.
  4. ^ "William Kantor author profile". MathSciNet. American Mathematical Society.
  5. ^ "Fellows of the AMS: Inaugural Class" (PDF). Notices of the American Mathematical Society. 60 (5): 631–637. May 2013. Retrieved September 24, 2019.
  6. ^ Hulpke, Alexander; Liebler, Robert; Penttila, Tim; Seress, Ákos, eds. (2006). Finite geometries, groups, and computation. Berlin New York: Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-019974-1. MR 2256928. OCLC 181078514.
  7. ^ "Invited Lectures in Algebra at the Berlin ICM". Retrieved September 24, 2019.
  8. ^ Kantor, William M. (1998). "Simple groups in computational group theory". Doc. Math. (Bielefeld) Extra Vol. ICM Berlin, 1998, vol. II. pp. 77–86.