combinatorial structures in finite projective and affine spaces, also known as Galois geometries, in which combinatorial objects such as blocking sets, spreads and partial spreads, ovoids, arcs and caps, as well as curves and hypersurfaces, are all of interest; - geometric and algebraic coding theory; - finite groups and incidence geometries, as in polar spaces, gener alized polygons and diagram geometries; - algebraic and geometric design theory, in particular designs which have interesting symmetric properties and difference sets, which play an important role, because of their close connections to both Galois geometry and coding theory.