HomePage of Stephen D. Smith

  Stephen D. Smith     Professor Emeritus, Mathematics
                       University of Illinois at Chicago
		       smiths@uic.edu

  (best) home:         728 Wisconsin
                       Oak Park IL 60304
                       708-848-3133

  [math dept: 312-996-3041]


  expected travel:
      ?              ?on hold due to COVID-19
  
 
    

  


   (logs of some recent trips can be read at (click to view directory of triplog-pdfs))

Research:

I am interested in finite groups, with connections to finite geometry, combinatorics, algebraic topology, and computer science. Click below for a brief curriculum vitae, or farther down for books and papers.

• Curriculum Vitae of Stephen D. Smith (click here to view CV)

• Text of 10 lectures at Venice summer school, 7-18 September 2015: "CFSG: A user's guide (applications of simple-group classification)" (click here to view pdf file)

• Lecture at symposium for Michael Aschbacher: Schock Prize, Stockholm, 3 Nov 2011 (click here for video)

• Poster for Spencer Lecture at Kansas State U, 17 April 2008 (click here to view pdf file)

There is a recent general-interest article, about work with various collaborators related to the classification of finite simple groups:

• Stephen Ornes, "The whole universe cataglog" (Scientific American, 1 July 2015) (click here to Sci.Am.---subscription or payment required)

Several recent popular-audience books introduce group theory in general (with eventual mention of the classification):

• Marcus du Sautoy: "Symmetry" (Harper-Collins, 2009; UK title: "Finding Moonshine", Fourth Estate, 2007)

• Mark Ronan: "Symmetry and the Monster" (Oxford University Press, 2007)

• Mario Livio: "The Equation that Couldn't Be Solved" (Simon & Schuster, 2005)

(My) Books:

A graduate text/reference, based on the Venice lectures above, has appeared as vol 230 of Surveys and Monographs of the A.M.S.: ``Applying the classification of finite simple groups: A user's guide"

An expository volume on "Subgroup complexes" has appeared as vol. 179 in Surveys and Monographs of the A.M.S.

An "outline" work with Aschbacher, Lyons, and Solomon "The classification of finite simple groups: groups of characteristic 2 type" is vol. 172 in Surveys and Monographs of the A.M.S. (This book won the 2012 AMS Steele Prize for Exposition.)

A joint work with Dave Benson "Classifying spaces of sporadic groups" is vol. 147 in Surveys and Monographs of the A.M.S.

A joint work with Michael Aschbacher "The classification of quasithin groups" is vols. 111 and 112 in Surveys and Monographs of the A.M.S. (This work completed the classification of the finite simple groups.)

Papers:

• S. Smith publications, 1971--present (html version of bibtex file "smith.bib")