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William Moser lecturing to Paul Erdös in Thomson House during
the First CCCG at McGill University in August 1989.


Computational Geometry is a rather young field, but has roots in much older subjects, perhaps the most important one of which is Discrete Geometry.

In particular, extremal problems from Discrete Geometry play a critical role in the analysis of geometric algorithms. Recognizing this, in 1989 we asked the grand master of extremal problems, Paul Erdös, to open the First Canadian Conference on Computational Geometry. Paul gave an exciting lecture to an overflow audience of computational geometers and local mathematicians (many of whom at the time may not have been too sure exactly what "computational geometry" meant!) His presence certainly contributed greatly to the success of the First CCCG.

In order to celebrate the Tenth CCCG we wanted to invite Paul Erdös to open the conference again. Sadly Paul is no longer with us, so we have decided to start the 10th CCCG with a lecture in his honour: The Paul Erdös Lecture.


Tom Shermer playing Go with Paul Erdös at
Thomson House during the First CCCG.


Photos courtesy of Geña Hahn.



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