William Kantor Explained

William Kantor
Birth Name:	William M. Kantor
Birth Date:	19 September 1944
Other Names:	Bill Kantor
Fields:	Mathematics
Workplaces:	University of Oregon, University of Illinois at Chicago
Thesis Title:	2-transitive symmetric designs
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Thesis Year:	1968
Doctoral Advisors:	Peter Dembowski, Richard Hubert Bruck
Notable Students:	Mark Ronan
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Website:	https://pages.uoregon.edu/kantor/

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.

Education and career

Kantor graduated with a bachelor's degree from Brooklyn College in 1964. 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. 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.^[1]

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

Significant publications

Books and monographs

• Book: Kantor, W. M.. Classical groups from a nonclassical viewpoint. Oxford University, Mathematical Institute, Oxford. 1979. 0578539.
• Kantor. William M.. Seress. Ákos. 2001. Black box classical groups. Memoirs of the American Mathematical Society. en. 149. 708. 0. 10.1090/memo/0708. 10.1.1.294.1011. 0065-9266. 1804385.

Journal articles

• Calderbank. R.. Kantor. W. M.. The Geometry of Two-Weight Codes. Bulletin of the London Mathematical Society. 18. 2. 1986. 97–122. 0024-6093. 10.1112/blms/18.2.97. 0818812.
• Kantor. William M.. Lubotzky. Alexander. The probability of generating a finite classical group. Geometriae Dedicata. 36. 1. 1990. 0046-5755. 10.1007/BF00181465. 1065213. 6771.
• Kantor. William M.. Homogeneous designs and geometric lattices. Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Series A. 38. 1. 1985. 66–74. 0097-3165. 10.1016/0097-3165(85)90022-6. 0773556. free.

Awards and honors

• In 2013, Kantor was named a fellow of the American Mathematical Society as a member of the inaugural class of fellows.^[3]
• In 2004, a conference "Finite geometries, groups, and computation" was held in honor of Kantor's 60th birthday.^[4]
• In 1998, Kantor gave an invited talk at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Berlin.^{[5] [6]}

Notes and References

1. Web site: GAP source code. Official GAP system website. September 27, 2019.
2. Web site: William Kantor author profile. MathSciNet. American Mathematical Society. subscription.
3. . May 2013 . Fellows of the AMS: Inaugural Class . Notices of the American Mathematical Society . 60 . 5 . 631–637 . September 24, 2019.
4. Book: Hulpke . Alexander . Liebler . Robert . Penttila . Tim . Seress . Ákos . Finite geometries, groups, and computation . Walter de Gruyter . Berlin New York . 2006 . 978-3-11-019974-1 . 181078514 . 2256928.
5. Web site: Invited Lectures in Algebra at the Berlin ICM. September 24, 2019.
6. Book: Kantor, William M.. Simple groups in computational group theory. Doc. Math. (Bielefeld) Extra Vol. ICM Berlin, 1998, vol. II. 1998. 77–86. https://www.elibm.org/ft/10011643000.