Author Archives: Peter Cameron

About Peter Cameron

I count all the things that need to be counted.

Peter Sarnak’s Hardy Lecture

Posted on 27/06/2020

Yesterday, Peter Sarnak gave the London Mathematical Society’s 2020 Hardy Lecture (remotely). He talked about gaps in the spectra of connected cubic graphs. It was a talk properly described as a tour de force, applying to the problem ideas from … Continue reading →

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National Windrush Day

Posted on 22/06/2020

Today is National Windrush Day. I’d like to put on record (for what it’s worth) my wholehearted support and sympathy for the Windrush generation. Although I have never suffered the ill-treatment meted out to some of the Windrush generation by … Continue reading →

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Jan Saxl

Posted on 04/05/2020

This morning brought the news that Jan Saxl died on Saturday. Jan arrived in Britain in the early autumn of 1968, as did I: a very significant time for Czechoslovakia. (I spent six weeks in Earls Court, in London, before … Continue reading →

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S. S. Shrikhande

Posted on 22/04/2020

News reached me today of the death of S. S. Shrikhande, at the age of 102. I have written about him before; in particular, here, I discussed two things for which he was perhaps best known, which can bear repeating. … Continue reading →

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The geometry of diagonal groups

Posted on 18/04/2020

This is an interim report on ongoing work with Rosemary Bailey, Cheryl Praeger and Csaba Schneider. We have reached a point where we have a nice theorem, even though there is still a lot more to do before the project … Continue reading →

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John Conway

Posted on 12/04/2020

News came this morning that John Conway has died. I hardly know where to begin paying tribute to such a polymath. But perhaps I will just tell a story which shows several things about him, not least his breadth of … Continue reading →

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The B. B. Newman Spelling Theorem

Posted on 06/04/2020

This is a guest post by Carl-Fredrik Nyberg Brodda, a recent Masters student at St Andrews and currently a PhD student at the University of East Anglia. The story has personal resonance for me, because it turns out that B. … Continue reading →

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More on derangements

Posted on 04/04/2020

Francis Bacon, in The New Organon, developed a famous metaphor: Those who have handled sciences have been either men of experiment or men of dogmas. The men of experiment are like the ant, they only collect and use; the reasoners … Continue reading →

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Carlo Casolo

Posted on 01/04/2020

Terrible news: Carlo Casolo died last week, possibly of a heart attack. I have one paper with him, on “Integrals of groups”, published last year. In February, as I reported, I visited Florence to carry on with this work and … Continue reading →

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Hall’s Marriage Theorem

Posted on 27/03/2020

Philip Hall was one of the greatest group theorists of the twentieth century. But it may well be that he is known to more people for a result which on the face of it is pure combinatorics, with nothing to … Continue reading →

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