In these lectures we provide an introduction to Lusztig's classification
of the irreducible characters of a finite group of Lie type. This essentially relies on
structural properties of the underlying algebraic group, which will be surveyed
in the first lecture. We then go on to discuss the partition of the set of characters
into series and the Jordan decomposition of characters. Finally, we address the
problem of computing character values, in the framework of Lusztig's theory of
character sheaves
 

In these lectures we provide an introduction to Lusztig's classification
of the irreducible characters of a finite group of Lie type. This essentially relies on
structural properties of the underlying algebraic group, which will be surveyed
in the first lecture. We then go on to discuss the partition of the set of characters
into series and the Jordan decomposition of characters. Finally, we address the
problem of computing character values, in the framework of Lusztig's theory of
character sheaves."