Preface

Summary

This volume contains articles based on talks given at the First Pythagorean Conference on Geometry, Combinatorial Designs and Related Structures, held on the island of Spetses in Greece from 1 to 7 June 1996.

There were 80 invited participants and 48 talks, including hour-long expositions by the keynote speakers: Peter Cameron, John Conway, Jean Doyen, Dieter Jungnickel, Curt Lindner, Rudi Mathon, Ernie Shult, Jef Thas.

It was a conference which will live long in the memory. Apart from the weather and the seaside setting, several other events contributed to an outstanding week. Jean Doyen opened the conference by giving a historical talk on Pythagoras. At a meeting of the Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications, Jef Thas was awarded the 1994 Euler Medal for a distinguished lifetime career. The excursion around the Peloponnesian peninsula included the theatre at Epidaurus and the hilltop ruins of Mycenae.

The editors, who were also the conference organisers, would like to thank the Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications, the Greek Ministry of Civilization, and the Greek Ministry of Education for their financial support. We would also like to thank the Greek Tourist Organization for providing a beautiful illustrated book of Greece for all the participants. Special thanks are due to Simos Magliveras for working out many organizational and tactical problems, and also to Sakis Simopoulos for considerable help in further organizational matters.