Michael O'Nan explained

Michael Ernest O'Nan (August 9, 1943, Fort Knox, Kentucky – July 31, 2017, Princeton, New Jersey)^[1] was an American mathematician, specializing in group theory.^[2]

O'Nan received his PhD in 1970 from Princeton University under Daniel Gorenstein with thesis A Characterization of the Three-Dimensional Projective Unitary Group over a Finite Field. He was a professor at Rutgers University. In 1976 he found strong evidence for the existence of a sporadic group,^[3] which Charles Sims constructed. The group is commonly called the O'Nan group after O'Nan.^[4]

The O'Nan–Scott theorem in group theory is also named after O'Nan, who discovered it independently from Leonard Scott. It describes the maximal subgroups of the symmetric groups.

Selected works

• Linear Algebra (= Eagle Mathematics Series. vol. 2A). Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York NY, 1971, (2nd edition.1976, ; 3rd edition. with Herbert Enderton. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, San Diego CA, 1990,).
• Normal structure of the one-point stabilizer of a doubly-transitive permutation group. I . Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. . 1975 . 214 . 1–42 . 0393207 . 10.1090/s0002-9947-1975-0393207-3. o'Nan . Michael E. . free .
• Normal structure of the one-point stabilizer of a doubly-transitive permutation group. II . Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. . 1975 . 214 . 43–74 . 10.1090/s0002-9947-75-99942-0. o'Nan . Michael E. . free .

References

1. Web site: Obituary of Michael E O'Nan.
2. Web site: Michael E. O'Nan, PhD, 73. centraljersey.com. August 2, 2017.
3. Michael E. O'Nan. Some evidence for the existence of a new simple group. Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society. 3rd Series. 32. 3. 1976. 0024-6115. 421–79. 10.1112/plms/s3-32.3.421.
4. cs2. A new construction of the O'Nan simple group . Ryba . A. J. E. . . 1988 . 112 . 1 . 173–197 . 0921973.