by Colin M Campbell
Professor Martin Newell writes;
At the inaugural meeting of the Irish Mathematical Society in Dublin in December 1977, I proposed that a series of instructional conferences be organised in various topics in Mathematics. The Departments in Cork and Galway undertook to arrange conferences in History of Mathematics and Group Theory, respectively, in 1978. Only the one in Galway has been held on an annual basis ever since.In the inaugural Newsletter of the Irish Mathematical Society in 1978 we have the following words.
The first of these conferences was held at U.C.G. May 12-13. The organiser was Martin L Newell and the topic was Group Theory. The following lectures were given:
Some aspects of permutation groups. | J P McDermott (U.C.G.) |
Finite simple groups. | T J Laffey (U.C.D.) |
The representations of GL(n, q). | G Thomas (U.C.C.) |
Augmentation quotients of some finite nonabelian groups | N Losey (Manitoba & Warwick) |
The next mini-conference will be held at U.C.C. in late September. The topic will be in the area of the history of Mathematics. Details about this conference will be issued at later.
Thus the series of Groups in Galway was well launched. I (Colin M Campbell -- University of St Andrews) have been a participant at many of the conferences over the years and always look forward to my 'spring treat'. It is a pleasure to note that the conference remains a great success. Perhaps this is due to the fact that the talks are taken seriously but the atmosphere within the conference is always friendly. Many of my colleagues from St Andrews have been at the meetings which always attract a good number of international participants. Long may the conferences continue.
We give the dates, main speakers and titles of the talks for the conferences at THIS LINK.
A further paper by C M Campbell about the Groups St Andrews Conferences and the Galway Group meetings is at THIS LINK.