Aschbacher was proving one major result after another and when he announced his progress at the Duluth conference, mathematicians were convinced that the problem was almost solved. This conference represented a turning point for the problem as many mathematicians (in particular those relatively new to the field) decided to leave the field to pursue other problems. However, Aschbacher's entrance into the field did not come without difficulties. Aschbacher's papers, beginning with the first he wrote in the field for publication, were very difficult to read. Some commented that his proofs lacked explanations of very sophisticated counting arguments. As Aschbacher's proofs became longer, it became even more difficult for others to understand his proofs. Even some of his own coauthors had trouble reading their own papers. From that point on, researchers no longer read papers as independent documents, but rather ones that required the context of its author. As a result, responsibility of finding errors in the classification problem was up to the entire community of researchers rather than just peer-reviewers alone. That Aschbacher's proofs were hard to read was not due to a lack of ability, but rather to the astounding complexity of the ideas he was able to produce. Books Finite group theory Sporadic groups 3-Transposition groups The finite simple groups and their classification Overgroups of Sylow subgroups in sporadic groups References External links Aschbacher's webpage at Caltech 1944 births Living people Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Group theorists California Institute of Technology alumni California Institute of Technology faculty University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellows of the American Mathematical Society Institute for Advanced Study visiting scholars Wolf Prize in Mathematics laureates 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians Mathematicians from Arkansas People from Little Rock, Arkansas