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The Search for a Finite Projective Plane of Order 10
Year of Award: 1992
Publication Information: The American Mathematical Monthly, vol. 98, 1991, pp. 305-318
Summary: This article recounts the evolution of the search for the projective plane of order 10 and how computers were used to show that no such thing exists.
About the Author: (from The American Mathematical Monthly, vol. 98, (1991)), Clement W.H. Lam received a Ph.D. in mathematics at Caltech under Herbert Ryser in 1974. After graduation, he spent a year at the University of Calgary. In 1975, he joined the computer science department at Concordia University, where he is currently a professor. His research interest is in combinatorics, especially in the application of computers to solve mathematical problems.