Category Archives: Honouring friends

Bill, Joram, Olek, Ted and Bob

Posted on March 24, 2013 by

I am not posting today about Budget 2013 as many of you may have expected. I am writing instead about friendship, scholarship and death. Today, I was planning to drive down to Seattle to participate in a memorial service for a … Continue reading →

Posted in Honouring friends | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Ted Odell

Posted on February 10, 2013 by

Reblogged from Gowers's Weblog: I was shocked and saddened to hear about a week ago that Ted Odell, a mathematician to whom I owe a lot, died suddenly on January 9th of a heart attack while he was travelling to … Continue reading →

Posted in Honouring friends | Leave a comment

In memory of Hugh C. Morris

Posted on December 27, 2012 by

“It is with great sadness that I write to inform you that in the early morning of December 23, my beloved father, and a man whom I know you knew very well, passed away.”  That was Sue informing me yesterday … Continue reading →

Posted in Banff International Research Station, Honouring friends | 1 Comment

“Stock options” in the business of building research capacity

Posted on December 5, 2012 by

A highlight of my latest visit to Ottawa was a reunion with my friends and former brothers-in-arms, Don Dawson and Luc Vinet, at the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal Ceremony. Our role in founding the MITACS network back in another millennium … Continue reading →

Posted in Honouring friends | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sixty already?!

Posted on November 26, 2012 by

For some, it is hard to believe: It is the hair! exclaimed once Shing-Tung Yau. I cannot believe it either, though for different reasons. And now that super-natural and sub-natural forces have failed to stop me from (almost) getting there, I am … Continue reading →

Posted in Honouring friends | Tagged | Leave a comment

“You hit the jackpot!”

Posted on September 25, 2012 by

That’s what I am told lately, over and over again. That the Banff International Research Station (BIRS) has hit the jackpot, because the man who has just accepted to chair its Board of Directors is no ordinary man. To have … Continue reading →

Posted in Honouring friends, Op-eds | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Canada’s Mathematical “Dream Team”

Posted on July 18, 2012 by

Back on July 2nd, I received a report that four members of Canada’s International Math Olympiad team were stuck for more than an hour in the elevator, while training at the Banff International Research Station. Well, it doesn’t look like this time … Continue reading →

Posted in Honouring friends, Op-eds | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Joram Lindenstrauss 1936-2012

Posted on April 29, 2012 by

“I am very sad to tell you that my father Joram died this morning, the 29th of April, in his home”, wrote Elon. I knew that Joram had been seriously ill for some time now, but the cryptic email brought more … Continue reading →

Posted in Honouring friends | 2 Comments

A close encounter of the classy kind with Preston Manning

Posted on January 28, 2012 by

The place: The Doug Mitchell Hockey arena at UBC. The occasion: The University of Alberta Bears vs. the UBC Thunderbirds. Why? It’s great hockey and for a fraction of the price of Canucks tickets. The instigators: Ed and Karen Perkins, my friends … Continue reading →

Posted in Honouring friends, Op-eds | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Timothy Gowers: A leader for our times

Posted on January 26, 2012 by

Timothy Gowers is much more than an outstanding mathematician. A Fields medalist, Tim is a global thinker, an eloquent and prolific writer, a pioneer among scholars, and a leader. “Un grand homme”, the French would say. Tim is an innovator in scholarship and also … Continue reading →

Posted in Honouring friends, Op-eds | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Don Fraser, Officer of the Order of Canada

Posted on January 7, 2012 by

“There are too many of my students on the dance floor”. That was at a wedding party (mine!) more than twenty years ago, and Don Fraser was resisting efforts to make him dance. Many of the guests (on the dance … Continue reading →

Posted in Honouring friends | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

A bottle of wine for the mathematicians!

Posted on October 29, 2011 by

The waitress suddenly interrupted our lively conversation. My discussions with Helmut -a fellow mathematician and a friend for more than 25 years, who looks like a cross between St John the Baptist and Attila the Hunt– are always loud, boisterous, … Continue reading →

Posted in Honouring friends, Op-eds | 3 Comments

Sleepless in Taiwan

Posted on July 10, 2011 by

I am in Taipei for a mathematics conference in celebration of the 60th birthday of a great colleague, a superior scholar, an enriching scientific collaborator, and a dear friend,  Chang-Shou Lin. What a treat it is to be here –notwithstanding … Continue reading →

Posted in Honouring friends | 1 Comment

The gentle giant … of Mathematics

Posted on March 18, 2011 by

Every mathematician knows that John Willard Milnor is the stuff of legend. But on March 30, 2003, I realized that the legend of John Milnor had spilled out, already a long time ago,  from our rarefied world community of research … Continue reading →

Posted in Banff International Research Station, Honouring friends | Leave a comment

To the Board of Governors they bring maturity, wisdom, and gravitas

Posted on December 18, 2010 by

… And to me, they bring comfort and hope in our future as a society and as a country. Sean Heisler, Ben Glassco, and Azim Wazeer are currently the students’ elected representatives on UBC’s Board of Governors. Three remarkable young … Continue reading →

Posted in Board of Governors, Honouring friends | 1 Comment

David Mumford receives the US National Medal of Science

Posted on December 17, 2010 by

Our friend and colleague David Mumford is among this year’s recipients of the US National Medals of Science. With Mathematics, “you can discover things (on your own) … You don’t have to get Ferdinand and Isabella to give you a … Continue reading →

Posted in Honouring friends | Leave a comment

Higgs Boson not confirmed yet, but Mathematics of salt is

Posted on December 13, 2010 by

Jonathan Borwein just sent me these priceless photos of the Halaman Ferguson structure “under construction”.

Posted in Honouring friends | Leave a comment

The new poster boy of mathematics

Posted on December 13, 2010 by

Any one who has walked the streets of the Latin quarter in Paris knows about the special reverence with which the French treat their scholars. The streets carry the names of no other but Laplace, Fourier, Monge, Poincaré, Curie, Perrin, … Continue reading →

Posted in Honouring friends | 1 Comment

A Higgs boson concealed in your award!

Posted on December 13, 2010 by

In response to my post, “Buckling under the weight of an award”, David Brydges wrote, “Someone must have planted a Higgs Boson in your award! After all, particle physicists believe that it is the origin of mass.”

Posted in Honouring friends | 2 Comments

How come we never talk enough about death?

Posted on December 11, 2010 by

I attended yesterday a memorial service for Virginia Greene (1944-2010). I didn’t know her  well. I had met her on the UBC Board of Governors that she had joined about a year ago. She was already frail and suffering the … Continue reading →

Posted in Board of Governors, Honouring friends | 1 Comment