Marshall Monroe Kirkman

Marshall Monroe Kirkman was an American mathematician who is best known for his work on the Kirkman's schoolgirl problem, a combinatorial problem involving the arrangement of schoolgirls into groups.

Kirkman's schoolgirl problem is a famous problem in combinatorial mathematics that asks for the arrangement of fifteen players into three everyday three-player teams over seven days.

Kirkman's schoolgirl problem is significant because it was one of the earliest problems in the field of combinatorial mathematics and had a major impact on the development of the field. It helped to establish the study of combinatorial designs and set the stage for further research in this area.

Marshall Monroe Kirkman made significant contributions to Kirkman's schoolgirl problem by formulating and solving special cases of the problem. He published his work on the problem in a paper titled "On a problem in combinations" in 1847.

Aside from his work on the Kirkman's schoolgirl problem, Marshall Monroe Kirkman also made contributions to the field of combinatorial mathematics through his research on Latin squares, tetrads, and mutually orthogonal sets. His work on these topics helped to advance the study of combinatorial designs.