Some aspects of the development of linear algebra in the last sixty years (Q1183180)

This paper is the report on the after-dinner talk given by the author at the Auburn 1990 Matrix Theory Conference and the aspects of linear algebra discussed here are, of course, those he has most expertise in. He mentions a number of fields in mathematics which have benefitted by the use of linear algebra and which, in their turn, have given rise to new questions in linear algebra and he discusses this interaction in those fields. The fields discussed include combinatorial mathematics, convex and nonlinear analysis, group representations, mathematical physics and complex analysis.